Illustrative image (Photo:https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/) Hanoi (VNA) – The US has reached a settlement to recover more than 49 million USD involving the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investment fund, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.
In a statement on May 6, the DoJ said it has settled its civil forfeiture cases against assets acquired by Khadem al-Qubaisi, former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB and laundered through financial institutions in several jurisdictions, including the US, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg.
IPIC had guaranteed bonds for 1MDB in 2012, arranged by Goldman. Al-Qubaisi is reported to have been sentenced to prison for 15 years in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
In April, the DoJ repatriated another 300 million USD recovered from asset seizures linked to the 1MDB fund to Malaysia.
Along with other amounts returned to Malaysia a year ago, the US has so far helped Malaysia recover more than 1 billion USD lost in the corruption scandal.
The 1MDB was founded by former Malaysian Prime Minister Nazib Razak in 2009 with the aim of boosting the country’s socio-economic development.
Malaysian and American investigators believe that the fund has looted about 4.5 billion USD, about 1 billion USD of which was sent to Nazib’s personal bank account.
Last September, the DoJ reached a deal with Malaysian financier Jho Low to retake almost 1 billion USD in funds Low and his family had misappropriated from the 1MDB./.
VNA
