FBI Confirms Transfer Of More Than $1B 1MDB Funds To Malaysia

The Justice Department has confirmed that it has repatriated an additional $452 million in misappropriated 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds to Malaysia, bringing the total returned to over $1.2 billion, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed.

Photo Insert: Protest against suspension of The Edge Financial and for media freedom by Malaysian media

The funds from 1MDB, formerly Malaysia's investment development fund, were laundered through major financial institutions worldwide, including in the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg.

Beginning in 2016, a landmark effort encompassing 41 civil forfeiture actions filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California and one in the US District Court for the District of Columbia by the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) of the Justice Department's Criminal Division led to the seizure of over $1.7 billion in stolen assets.

This is the largest recovery to date under the Department's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. The funds include both funds finally forfeited and funds the Department assisted in recovering and returning. The Department continues to litigate actions against additional assets allegedly linked to this scheme.

As alleged in the civil forfeiture complaints, from 2009 through 2015, more than $4.5 billion in funds belonging to 1MDB were allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates, and Low Taek Jho (aka Jho Low), through a criminal scheme involving international money laundering and embezzlement.

Some of the embezzlement proceeds were also allegedly used to pay bribes.

1MDB was created by the government of Malaysia to promote economic development in Malaysia through global partnerships and foreign direct investment. Instead, funds held by 1MDB and proceeds of bonds issued for and on behalf of 1MDB were taken and spent on a wide variety of extravagant items, including luxury homes and properties in Beverly Hills, New York, and London; a 300-foot superyacht; and fine art by Monet and Van Gogh.

The funds also were invested in a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills, a movie production company that made "The Wolf of Wall Street" and the redevelopment of the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, and shares in EMI, the largest private music-rights holder. Other funds lined the pockets of public officials and co-conspirators.

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