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The US Department of Justice said Wednesday it was seeking to recover an additional $ 300 million in assets that it says are tied to the billions of dollars. scandal surrounding Malaysian state fund 1MDB.
The Justice Department said it had traced the assets to an escrow account in the UK.
US and Malaysian Authorities Estimate $ 4.5 Billion Stolen 1MDB in an elaborate plan that spread around the world and involved high-level officials, including former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, executives from US bank Goldman Sachs and others.
Najib is on trial in Kuala Lumpur in a series of 1MDB-related cases and has denied wrongdoing.
In a complaint filed in the Central District of California on Wednesday, the Justice Department said the $ 300 million was attributable to a line of credit granted by Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela to Saudi Arabia’s PetroSaudi Oil Services in connection with an oil drilling company. .
The companies are already embroiled in a legal dispute over the funds that Malaysia’s high court has tried to freeze with the cooperation of UK authorities.
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Malaysia’s Najib receives 12 years in prison for 1MDB-linked graft case |
Billions of dollars are believed to have been looted from the now-defunct 1MDB, which was apparently created to accelerate the economic development of Malaysia.
The Justice Department said it was also searching for four dozen promotional posters for movies that Riza Aziz, a Hollywood producer and Najib’s stepson, acquired with more than $ 4 million in funds traceable to embezzled assets from 1MDB.
Malaysian prosecutors dropped the money laundering charges against Aziz in May after reaching a settlement in which he agreed to help authorities recover assets related to 1 MBD. Goldman Sachs reached a $ 3.9 billion settlement in July, which Malaysia’s finance minister says resolves all pending charges and claims against the investment bank. Shortly after, Najib was found guilty on all charges in the first of the 1MDB-related cases he faces, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. You have appealed the decision.
Wednesday’s complaint brings the total value of assets the United States has sought to recover in connection with the scandal to $ 2.1 billion, the largest asset recovery action ever filed by the agency. So far, the US has recovered or helped Malaysia recover almost $ 1.1 billion.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
