In a stunning blow to Malaysia's political establishment, the US Justice Department today said it was moving to seize more than USD 1 billion in assets allegedly tied to corruption at a state-owned investment fund.
In court papers filed in California, federal prosecutors listed the Hollywood financial crime caper "The Wolf of Wall Street" and nearly twenty other assets to be seized, including lavish real estate from Beverly Hills to a penthouse in New York's Time Warner Center to London's high-end Belgravia neighborhood.
Also included were artworks by the painters Monet and Van Gogh as well as a Bombardier Global 5000 business jet.
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All were the tainted proceeds of the misappropriation of billions of dollars from the scandal-tarred 1Malaysia Development Berhad investment fund.
The development was likely to prove particularly embarrassing for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who, in his concurrent position as finance minister, controlled the company until its dissolution in May.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that investigators had tied nearly USD 700 million to Najib's personal bank accounts. Najib had previously denied wrongdoing.
Subsequent reports said the money originated from 1MDB and may have exceeded USD 1 billion, which 1MDB denies.
The government later acknowledged the payments, but called them a "personal donation" from the Saudi royal family.
Using the pseudonym "Malaysian Official 1," today's complaint identifies a "high-ranking official" in the Malaysian government with control over the fund as being involved in the misappropriation of funds.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch will reveal details of the seizure effort later today.
The move to seize the funds, which is subject to what could be lengthy legal proceedings, emerges from a 2010 Justice Department anti-kleptocracy initiative intended to confiscate
the ill-gotten gains of world leaders which pass through the US banking system.
The scandal around the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund, much of them borrowed, has battered Najib's government.
Authorities from Singapore to Switzerland and the United States have joined in tracking down missing funds of 1MDB.
Switzerland and Singapore have frozen millions of dollars worth of assets on suspicion of 1MDB-related embezzlement and money-laundering, but so far no major figures have been brought to justice.
