Malaysian fund sues Amicorp for allegedly facilitating $7 bln fraud
Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has filed a legal claim against corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO Toine Knipping, alleging it facilitated over $7 billion in fraudulent transactions, the fund said on Monday.
1MDB is an investment fund founded by former Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009. Photo courtesy of Reuters.
The claim was filed in the British Virgin Islands against eight Amicorp entities and its CEO, alleging that they played a vital role in enabling the sovereign wealth fund to be defrauded between 2009 and 2014. It estimates the value of the claim at over $1 billion.
On December 11, a Malaysian court approved the government’s application to bar PetroSaudi International and its chief executive from accessing $340 million connected to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
The ruling comes after Tarek Obaid, the Swiss-Saudi chief executive of the oil exploration and production company, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison in Switzerland over the embezzlement of $1.8 billion from 1MDB.
The multibillion-dollar financial scandal has led to criminal investigations around the world, including in the U.S., Switzerland and Singapore. The scandal led to the fall of Najib Razak’s government in 2018.
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