Malaysia has recovered $5m of stolen 1MDB assets over the last 13 months

Malaysia is still trying to recover billions of dollars investigators say were stolen from the state fund.

MACC has announced the recovery of property and other assets from 1MDB, the state fund at the centre of a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal across multiple countries and jurisdictions.

The latest recoveries, which took place from 2023 until this month, are worth more than 23.9 million ringgits ($5m), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement on Thursday.

They followed the trial and conviction of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng who was jailed by a New York court last year for his role in the scandal.

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The scale of the corruption at the fund, which was established to boost economic development, fuelled a backlash against the government of then-Prime Minister Najib Razak that saw his party lose power for the first time in Malaysian history in elections held in 2018.

The MACC said the latest recoveries came from a former 1MDB employee as well as through voluntary surrender by five individuals, including 4.55 million ringgits ($954,679) from Amhari Effendi, a former special officer to Najib.

The authorities also seized three condominium units worth 7.05 million ringgits ($1.5m) from Mohammad Kamal Yahya, who was a foreign affairs adviser to Najib, as well as assets in Malaysia and Singapore worth 11.75 million ringgits ($2.5m) from associates of Jho Low, the Malaysian financier who is now a fugitive.

Ng was jailed for 10 years in the United States but was allowed to return to Malaysia to assist authorities in their investigations and to recover more of the money that was lost.

Investigators in the US and Malaysia estimate at least $4.5bn was stolen from 1MDB and instead used to finance luxury lifestyles and the production of the Hollywood movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

Najib was jailed in August 2022 in the first of multiple cases related to the scandal, becoming the first Malaysian prime minister ever to be put behind bars. However, it is to be noted, that this is not due to 1MDB but the SRC International case.

Last week, Malaysia’s pardons board announced that his 12-year sentence, for the SRC International case, had been halved and his fine slashed from 210.5 million ringgit ($44.2m) to 50 million ringgit ($10.5m), in a decision that was greeted with dismay by some Malaysians. It also brought hope to Najib’s supporters who believed that he was a victim of political persecution as there were high levels of discrepancies in the court processes including discounting pieces of evidence.

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Azizi Khan
Azizi Khan lives in Melbourne, Australia building a world class digital bank. A banking and finance specialist he has spend more than two decades in Australia. With a background in regulatory reporting, AML/KYC and financial technology, Azizi regularly provide consulting services to financial institutions and government agencies. With a keen interest in digital technologies, startups and digital media, Azizi founded New Malaysia Herald in Melbourne Australia to provide a new all encompassing global Malaysian news. Azizi is a Senior Member of Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA).

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