Police will assist US authorities probing 1MDB, says M'sian police chief

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's police chief Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said on Friday (May 25) police will give their full cooperation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in their investigations into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

“We are definitely going to cooperate with all of those involved. At the same time we will continue with our own investigations under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 for ill-gotten gains,” he said.

He said police investigations into 1MDB has been ongoing all the while.

Since the momentous May 9 general election, the new Pakatan Harapan government led by prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has made it a priority of finding out how billions of dollars went missing from 1MDB, and anti-graft agents have quizzed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who set up the fund a decade ago.

The 1MDB scandal spawned global probes as investigators tracked a money trail stretching from Switzerland to Singapore and the US.

Mr Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing, even though corruption allegations have swirled around him.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng accused Mr Najib's government of deceiving the public and parliament over the country's financial situation and 1MDB, and that it had been bailing out debt-burdened 1MDB since April 2017, paying a total of RM6.98 billion (S$2.35 billion) so far.

And on Thursday, the four co-chairs of the multi-agency taskforce Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, Datuk Seri Shukri Abdull and Datuk Hamid Bador said talks with the FBI and DOJ centred on providing mutual legal assistance to the probe and the return of assets frozen in the US to Malaysia.

According to the taskforce, investigations into the Malaysian sovereign investment fund had stalled due to the lack of cooperation by local authorities previously.

The quartet also said an FBI letter of request dated November 13, 2016 to then-Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad and a formal request for MLA to Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Apandi Ali on September 22 last year had both gone unanswered. MALAY MAIL