Earlier, on Aug 28, PetroSaudi’s Patrick Mahony (left) and Tarek Obaid were found guilty of fraud for their roles in a scam to defraud 1MDB. - PHOTO: AFP
KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): 1Malaysia Development Bhd. said its legal claim against BSI Bank Ltd. will proceed after the High Court in Singapore dismissed the bank’s application to strike out the case.
1MDB and its subsidiary, Brazen Sky, are seeking US$394 million (RM1.7 billion) from BSI Bank for the losses it suffered from schemes orchestrated through accounts at the bank, which was placed under liquidation in 2017, the troubled state fund said late Thursday.
"We are pleased this application has been denied and are committed to holding accountable the institutions and individuals involved in misappropriating money from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, while ensuring the recovery and restitution of these assets back to the Malaysian people,” a spokesperson for the 1MDB board said in a statement.
BSI Bank acted in breach of its duty to exercise reasonable skill and care in executing Brazen Sky’s instructions and the operation of the account, according to 1MDB’s statement of claim in May.
The legal claim is part of ongoing global efforts to recover billions of dollars of misappropriated funds, according to 1MDB. More than $7.5 billion in total was stolen from 1MDB and its subsidiary companies, it said in its statement of claim filed in the Singapore High Court in May.
1MDB was a national strategic development company that took shape in 2009. It became the center of criminal probes spanning across continents that ensnared multiple banks and led to the imprisonment of former Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak.
Swiss regulators fined BSI Bank 70 million Swiss francs (US$82.6 million) in 2020 after it was caught up in the scandal. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which helped issue three bonds worth US$6.5 billion for 1MDB, admitted to its role in the biggest foreign bribery case in US enforcement history, reaching multiple international settlements exceeding $5 billion.
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