KUALA LUMPUR: The US Justice Department (DOJ) has obtained a forfeiture order on a luxury New York apartment allegedly bought with misappropriated 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds.
In a statement on Wednesday (May 27), the DOJ's Public Affairs office said this resolves a civil forfeiture case filed in US District Court for the Central District of California seeking the recovery of over US$6mil (RM23.87mil) in assets tied to an international money-laundering conspiracy involving the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
"As alleged in civil forfeiture complaints filed in this case, billions of dollars in funds belonging to 1MDB were misappropriated from 2009 through 2015 by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates and Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) through a criminal scheme involving international money laundering and embezzlement.
"Millions of dollars in such misappropriated funds were then used to purchase a luxury condominium unit in New York City for the benefit of May Ling Catherine Tan, a personal assistant for Low, who profited from this asset by retaining rental proceeds.
"Under the forfeiture order entered in this case, the condominium and rental proceeds held by Tan will be forfeited to the United States government," the statement read.
It said 1MDB was originally created by the Malaysian government to promote economic development through global partnerships and foreign direct investment.
"Its funds were intended to be used for improving the well-being of the Malaysian people but funds held by 1MDB and proceeds of bonds issued for and on behalf of it were as alleged, misappropriated and spent by Low and his co-conspirators on a wide variety of extravagant items, including luxury homes and properties in Beverly Hills, California, New York, and London, a 300ft superyacht and art by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh," it said.
It further said that funds were allegedly sent into numerous business investments, including a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills, the movie production company that made "The Wolf of Wall Street", the redevelopment of the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, and shares in EMI, the largest private music-rights holder, as well.
The forfeiture action forms part of the DOJ's wider effort to recover assets allegedly linked to the 1MDB scandal, which has triggered investigations across multiple countries over the past decade, it added.
The FBI’s International Corruption Squad in New York is leading the investigation, with assistance from authorities in Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Latvia and France.
The department acknowledged the cooperation from Malaysia’s Attorney General’s Chambers, the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
