PETALING JAYA: An additional US$20mil (RM94mil) linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal has been recovered, according to the US Justice Department.
The department made the announcement on Jan 17 that the latest amount was recovered following an ongoing legal effort involving 43 civil forfeiture actions in the United States that has led to over US$1.7bil in assets seized.
"As alleged in the civil forfeiture complaints, from 2009 through 2015, more than US$4.5bil in funds belonging to 1MDB were misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates, and Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, through a criminal scheme involving international money laundering and embezzlement," the department said.
According to court documents, the funds were laundered through major financial institutions in the US, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg and used to bribe officials and buy luxury assets like property in New York and London, expensive art and a superyacht.
In June last year, the department said it had recovered, returned, and assisted in returning approximately US$1.4bil (RM6.6bil) to Malaysia.
At the time, the US embassy said the sum represented the fourth instalment of funds recovered from asset seizures related to the scandal-plagued state investment arm.
Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is currently on trial for misappropriating around RM2bil from 1MDB.
