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PETALING JAYA: An arrest warrant has been served on a British law firm in an attempt to recover hundreds of millions of dollars, said to be proceeds of the 1MDB corruption scandal, which it maintains on behalf of a client, reported The Guardian of London. .
He said the warrant was served by the British National Crime Agency (NCA) at the London headquarters of Clyde & Co, on behalf of the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) late last year.
According to The Guardian, the law firm had a sum of $ 330 million in a bank account.
Earlier, the Malaysian government also said that a sum of US $ 340,258,246 withheld by Clyde & Co belonging to PetroSaudi and its subsidiary company was obtained through illegal activities.
In addition to the $ 340 million, the government had tried to ban the use of money held in a bank account under the name Temple Fiduciary Services Limited.
The Guardian report, released yesterday, said the warrant, which it described as “an actual arrest warrant,” an order seeking to seize property or assets, was signed by a United States federal judge and turned over to Clyde & Co. October 29th.
The DoJ alleged that the funds stemmed from a complex fraud against 1MDB, in which more than $ 4 billion was laundered to pay bribes and finance the lavish lifestyles of its alleged perpetrators.
The Guardian said US and Malaysian authorities continued to recover money related to the scandal, including large sums used to finance Hollywood movies and to pay for items such as a superyacht and paintings by Van Gogh and Monet.
He said that Justice Department prosecutors alleged that the money held by the law firm was “almost all that remains of the proceeds” from the first phase of the 1MDB fraud, in which $ 1 billion was allegedly misappropriated.
According to prosecutors, $ 700 million of the money was used for the “personal gratification of the 1MDB conspirators,” while $ 300 million was diverted to a joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi, established by Saudi businessman Tarek Obaid with a member of Saudi royalty. family.
The Justice Department first accused PetroSaudi of being involved in the fraud in 2016 and later claimed that Obaid was “a key member to orchestrate and profit” from this phase of the scheme, he said. Obaid, who was charged last year in Malaysia in connection with the alleged fraud, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The Guardian said US and Malaysian prosecutors began turning their attention last year to money held by Clyde & Co, which they claimed was the product of the 1MDB-PetroSaudi joint venture.
Clyde & Co’s relationship with PetroSaudi, he said, appeared to have started around 2015, when the law firm began representing PetroSaudi in a dispute over unpaid bills with Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
PetroSaudi ultimately prevailed in the case and was awarded around $ 380 million last year, most of which had been placed in the escrow of Clyde & Co.
The Guardian quoted a Clyde & Co spokesperson who insisted the funds were the product of pending letters of credit and that the appeal court had ruled that PetroSaudi was entitled to receive the money.
“Our participation only arises because we kept the funds in order and under the direction of an arbitration court,” the spokesperson quoted.
The spokesperson added that the firm “adheres to the highest professional and ethical standards” and “will continue to fully comply with our legal and regulatory obligations as the case requires,” according to the report.
