In an announcement today (July 22), the Singapore Police has frozen the two bank accounts which contains money from the Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund company 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The strategic development company is wholly owned by the Malaysia Government created in 2008 to invest in the long-term economic development for Malaysia by forging global partnerships.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal published an article with evidence tracing the state funds to the private bank accounts of the Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates. Apparently, banks in Singapore are involved with numerous complicated transfers attempted to fool third party checks.
Photo from Ken Brown Wall Street Journal
Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak is the chairman of the sovereign wealth fund company and is now currently embroiled with allegations of corruptions. Apart from the United States press, Wall Street Journal, other foreign media like the British newspaper The Sunday Times used leaked email correspondences revealed that a friend of the Prime Minister’s step-son was able to siphon US$700 million from a joint venture deal between 1MDB and a leading oil exploration and production company PetroSaudi.
PM Najib Razak defensively denied all allegations and even threatened to sue Wall Street Journal, who then revealed the bank account details online to rebut his denial. To read more about the 1MDB matter, please read this article on Wall Street Journal here.
Photo from WSJ