1MDB theft pursued by the DOJ's Criminal Division,pursuing "Malaysian officials", and "corrupt 1MDB officials": -Testimony before US Senate

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In the Malaysia matter - the largest single action ever brought under the Initiative - the Department filed a complaint in 2016 to forfeit and recover assets associated with an international conspiracy to launder more than $4.5 billion stolen from the country`s sovereign wealth fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. The Malaysian government created 1MDB to promote economic development through international partnerships and foreign direct investment, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of the Malaysian people. However, corrupt 1MDB officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account. Between 2009 and 2015, those corrupt officials and their associates took more than $4.5 billion from the development fund in four phases. These funds were laundered through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, and the United States. The funds were then used to purchase approximately $1.7 billion in assets that the Department seeks to recover, including a $261 million, 350-foot yacht; a $35 million jet; masterpieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet; and a motion picture company that used the funds to finance, among other things, the production of the films ``The Wolf of Wall Street,`` ``Daddy`s Home,`` and ``Dumb and Dumber To.`` MLARS and the U.S. Attorney`s Office in Los Angeles filed civil complaints targeting assets that, according to court documents, were misappropriated and diverted by Malaysian officials and their associates from 1MDB. In June 2017, the Department announced additional steps to forfeit and recover assets, bringing the total assets subject to forfeiture in this case to more than $1.7 billion. If the United States is successful in court, we will forfeit this more than $1.7 billion in property, liquidate it, and, ultimately, return as much as possible to the citizens of Malaysia.

(Source: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, CRIMINAL DIVISION M. KENDALL DAY, PREPARED TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE BANKING, HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HEARING ON COMBATING MONEY LAUNDERING AND OTHER FORMS OF ILLICIT FINANCE: ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVES ON REFORMING AND STRENGTHENING BSA ENFORCEMENT, AS RELEASED BY THE COMMITTEE - NEWS EVENT)