Switzerland probes six for suspected bribery of foreign officials in 1MDB probe

For Lim to declare in his first press conference that government debt has exceeded 1 trillion ringgit ($251 billion) because of a sly public bailout of 1MDB gets him full marks for honesty, but not for tact.

UALA LUMPUR: Switzerland is investigating six people on suspicion of bribing foreign officials and other offences, as part of a money laundering investigation into Malaysian state fund 1MDB, the Swiss attorney general's office said on Tuesday.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not one of the "public officials under accusation", the statement said. 

It was issued after Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber met with his Malaysian counterpart Tommy Thomas in Kuala Lumpur.

1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB as it is known, is at the centre of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Malaysia and the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice has said an estimated $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB, a fund founded by Najib.

Najib, prime minister until a shock May 9 election loss, was arrested and charged last week by Malaysian authorities for abuse of power and criminal breach of trust in connection with transactions linked to SRC International, a former  unit of 1MDB.

Najib pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was released on bail. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to 1MDB.

SWISS INVESTIGATION

The six people under investigation by Swiss authorities are two former officials from 1MDB, two former officials from Abu Dhabi sovereign funds and two officials of Saudi energy group Petrosaudi, the Swiss Attorney General's statement said.

At a press conference, Lauber said Switzerland was investigating funds linked to both 1MDB and SRC.

"The whole funding of 1MDB and SRC International is about $7 billion," Lauber said, referring to the funds his office says originated from 1MDB and SRC and flowed through the global financial system from 2009 to 2015.

"This is just what we saw in our investigations in Switzerland, so a part (of it) most likely went through Switzerland and other parts went somewhere else," he said.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier that former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner was in talks with U.S. prosecutors to potentially plead guilty to criminal charges stemming from an alleged scheme to steal billions of dollars from 1MDB. - Reuters

Below is the statement posted on the Swiss attorney general’s office website

Bern / Putrajaya: The Attorney General of Switzerland, Michael Lauber met his counterpart, Tommy Thomas, today on 10 July 2018 during an official working visit to Malaysia, where the two officials discussed the coordination of the investigation into the 1MDB case.

Attorney General Michael Lauber and a delegation of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) were received by the recently appointed Attorney General Tommy Thomas and other officials of the Malaysian Attorney General’s Chambers during a high level meeting in Putrajaya. Focus of the discussions were on the cooperation between the two prosecution authorities, in particular with regard to the 1MDB case.