Malaysia's prime minister said today he is serious about good governance and vowed to "fully cooperate" with a US investigation into a USD 3.5 billion scandal involving a state fund he headed.
The comments by Prime Minister Najib Razak were his first since the US Department of Justice revealed in Los Angeles today that it has initiated action to seize about USD 1.3 billion of the missing USD 3.5 billion allegedly used to buy assets in the US by people close to Najib.
"Allow the process to take its course, but I want to say categorically that we are serious about good governance," Najib told reporters.
His statement, however, is going to carry little weight with his detractors who accuse him of being behind the alleged misappropriation of the funds.
Najib has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing. The state fund, known as 1MDB, was created in 2009 by Najib shortly after he took office to promote economic development projects.
Instead, U.S. Prosecutors said, fund officials diverted more than USD 3.5 billion through a web of shell companies and bank accounts in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the United States.
The Justice Department says it wants to seize some USD 1.3 billion of that money, which officials were able to trace through the US financial system. It says the forfeiture demand is the largest single action it's taken.
The money was used to pay for luxury properties in New York and California, a USD 35 million jet, art by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet and helped finance the Hollywood film, "The Wolf of Wall Street," according to the DOJ complaints.
"In seeking to seize these forfeited items, the Department of Justice is sending a message that we will not allow the United States to become a playground for the corrupt," said Eileen Decker, the US Attorney in Los Angeles. "And we will not allow it to be a platform for money laundering or a place to hide and invest in stolen riches."
Najib said he viewed the US action seriously but pointed out that it was limited to the individuals named in the complaints. He said his government will "fully cooperate" with US authorities.
The complaints identify by name several people closed to Najib. Among them is Najib's stepson, Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz, who co-founded movie production studio Red Granite Pictures, and businessman Low Taek Jho, who is close to Najib's family. The complaint describes Riza as a relative of an unnamed "Malaysian Official 1" whose approval was needed for the fund's financial commitments.
