Swiss seek S’pore’s help for criminal probe into 1MDB

SINGAPORE / KUALA LUMPUR — Singapore’s Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) said on Tuesday (April 12) it has received a request from its Swiss counterparts for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters related to troubled state 
investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). 

The statement, which was issued in response to media queries, is the latest in a series of twists and turns in the long-running saga, including a revelation by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund that it never received several billion dollars which 1MDB claimed it had sent. 

“In response to press queries, the AGC confirms that it has received a request for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters from the Office of the Attorney General Switzerland (OAGS) for information and documents on certain fund flows flowing from 1Malaysia Development Berhad and entities related to it,” said the AGC in a statement. 

“The request is receiving attention and the AGC will render all possible assistance to the OAGS expeditiously,” it added.

The controversy surrounding 1MDB deepened on Monday when Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), and its subsidiary Aabar Investments, said in a joint statement that a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) with an almost identical name, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (Aabar BVI), “was not an entity within either corporate group”.

The bipartisan Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigating 1MDB said in a report released last week that the Malaysian sovereign fund sent a total of US$3.5 billion (S$4.7 billion) to “Aabar BVI”. What happened to the money after it went to the British Virgin Islands could not be determined, said the report.

But the IPIC and Aabar statement noted that they had neither received any payment from the BVI company, which was wound up last June, nor assumed any liabilities on its behalf.

The 1MDB fund is solely owned by the Ministry of Finance. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Finance Minister, was authorised to sign off on the fund’s major transactions, according to the parliamentary report. 

The 1MDB transfers to “Aabar BVI” included about US$1.4 billion from a privately placed bond that Goldman Sachs raised in 2012. The 1MDB fund also made payments of US$855 million, US$993 million and US$295 million as security deposits and other guarantees for the bond to the BVI firm, said the PAC report.

In response to IPIC’s statement, 1MDB said it was surprised that neither IPIC nor Aabar had any knowledge of payments made to Aabar BVI.

1MDB said on Tuesday that it is considering the actions available to the firm following the denial, questioning why IPIC and Aabar only issued the denial of any links to Aabar BVI now, years after the fact.

“The company has always maintained and continues to maintain that if any wrongdoing is found, then action must be taken, according to the law,” said 1MDB.

Mr Najib has been fending off allegations he was a beneficiary of 1MDB’s funds after about US$681 million was deposited into his personal bank account just before a General Election in 2013. The Malaysian attorney-general has said the transfer was a gift from Saudi Arabia’s royal family and that most of it was returned.

Investigators in at least five nations, in addition to Malaysia, are scrutinising various transactions connected with 1MDB in a wide-ranging money-laundering, fraud and corruption probe. 

Early this month, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it has called on some banks operating in the Republic to disclose information about transactions and fund flows related to its probe into possible money laundering involving the Malaysian state investment fund.

Mr Najib insisted on Tuesday that 1MDB will leave a lasting “legacy” despite the “shameful” criticism levelled at it.

“History will show that the shameful, politically motivated allegations made to unseat a democratically elected government were false,” he said, when speaking at an investment ­forum, referring to how former premier Mahathir Mohamad has been calling for his resignation over the failings of 1MDB, among other issues.

He reiterated that 1MDB’s assets exceeded its liabilities and the state-owned company’s debts have also been cleared through a Cabinet-­approved debt reduction plan. AGENCIES