The Justice Department announced today the repatriation of an additional $156 million in misappropriated 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds to Malaysia, bringing the total returned by the department to approximately $1.4 billion.
According to court documents, funds from 1MDB, formerly Malaysia’s investment development fund, were laundered through major financial institutions worldwide, including in the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg. As alleged in civil forfeiture complaints, from 2009 through 2015, high-level officials of 1MDB, their associates, and Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, misappropriated more than $4.5 billion through a criminal scheme involving international money laundering and embezzlement. Some proceeds were allegedly used to pay bribes.
Beginning in 2016, a landmark effort encompassing 41 civil forfeiture actions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and one in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division led to the seizure of over $1.7 billion in stolen assets. This is the largest recovery under the department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. The funds include both finally forfeited funds and those recovered with departmental assistance. The department continues to litigate actions against additional assets allegedly linked to this scheme.
1MDB was created by the Malaysian government to promote economic development through global partnerships and foreign direct investment. Its funds were intended for improving Malaysian well-being but were instead misappropriated for luxury homes and properties in Beverly Hills, New York, and London; a superyacht; fine art by Monet and Van Gogh; business investments including a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills; a movie production company that made “The Wolf of Wall Street”; redevelopment projects; and shares in EMI. Allegedly other funds went to various public officials and co-conspirators.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri; Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.
The FBI’s International Corruption Squads in New York and Los Angeles along with IRS-CI are leading the investigation.
MLARS Trial Attorneys Barbara Levy, Josh Sohn, Jonathon Baum, and Sean Fern are prosecuting with assistance from former MLARS Deputy Chief Woo S. Lee; Trial Attorney Kyle Freeny; former Asset Forfeiture Section Chief Steven Welk; Asset Forfeiture Section Chief Jonathan Galatzan; and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Kucera and Michael Sew Hoy for the Central District of California.
Substantial assistance has been provided by numerous entities including:
- The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs
- MLARS’ Program Operations Unit
- The U.S. Marshals Service
- Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia
- Royal Malaysia Police
- Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission
- UK Financial Conduct Authority
- UK Prudential Regulation Authority
- UK National Crime Agency (NCA)
- Attorney General’s Chambers of British Virgin Islands
- Attorney General’s Office of Bailiwick Guernsey
- Guernsey Economic Crime Division
- International Anti-Corruption Coordinate Centre
- Attorney General’s Chambers of Singapore
- Singapore Police Force–Commercial Affairs Division
- Office of Attorney General & Federal Office of Justice (Switzerland)
- Judicial investigating authority Grand Duchy Luxembourg
- Grand-Ducal Police Luxembourg CID
- Indonesian authorities
- Latvian authorities
- French authorities
The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is led by dedicated MLARS prosecutors partnering with federal law enforcement agencies and U.S. Attorney's Offices to forfeit proceeds from foreign official corruption to benefit those harmed by such acts.
Individuals with information about possible proceeds of foreign corruption located or laundered through the United States should email kleptocracy@usdoj.gov or submit information at https://tips.fbi.gov/.