1MDB has reportedly averted an escalation in a billion-dollar feud with Abu Dhabi, as U.S. prosecutors ratchet up scrutiny into alleged corruption at the Malaysian fund.
This week, finews.asia reported that Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, formerly steadfast business partners, were squabbling over a debt deal gone sour.
On Friday, «The Malaysian Insight» cited undisclosed banking sources saying that Malaysia had finally wired $350 million to Abu Dhabi.
This means that Malaysia has squeaked in ahead of deadline from the emirate, which had set an ultimatum of Friday for the troubled fund to make an $310 million payment towards repaying bonds worth $3.5 billion.
«Got It Early»
The two had buried the hatchet in arbitration in London earlier this year, but then gotten caught up in haggling as Malaysia reportedly struggled to rationalize – or liquidate – 1MDB's assets, including big property development projects.
Unnamed bankers quoted by the Malaysian media outlet said that the debt-weighed fund had wired the funds on Thursday, directly from an 1MDB account in Malayan Banking Berhad, Malaysia's largest bank.
«IPIC received US$350 million instead of US$310 million and got it early,» the website quoted its sources. finews.asia couldn't independently verify the reporting.
First Lady's Baubles
To be sure, the two countries are bickering in private. Neither are part of a six-country, U.S-led probe, though Abu Dhabi has reportedly imprisoned former IPIC head Khadem Al-Qubaisi and another executive at the sovereign wealth fund.
That investigation largely under wraps in Malaysia itself, where leader Najib Razak (pictured below) is expected to call a general election imminently.
Razak, pictured mingling with Malaysian athletes at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and Asean Para Games on Thursday at around the time the millions were reported to be wired to Abu Dhabi, has said little publicly about the corruption.
Najib, whose wife Rosmah Mansor is accused to accepting nearly $30 million in diamonds from 5th Avenue designer Lorraine Schwartz bought with 1MBD money, is expected to handily win reelection.
Breather for 1MDB
This week's payment gives Najib and Malaysia, which would have faced additional obligations from Abu Dhabi, a breather until a second tranche in payment is due later this year.
Separately, the U.S. is heating up a wide-ranging probe into how 1MDB money ended up paying for luxury real estate, one of the world's largest yachts, and even financing a Hollywood blockbuster, «Bloomberg» reported.
AWOL Jho Low
U.S. prosecutors asked a California judge overnight to hold off on seizing assets from Jho Low, who they alleged masterminded the murky offshore trail from state to private coffers.
The U.S. officials argue that more seizures could hamper their efforts to conduct a criminal investigation, which marks a heightening of the long-running probe.
Low, a Malaysia financier who made a splash in U.S. society circles with his spendthrift ways, remains AWOL as the investigation hots up. He has not been charged, and has hit back recently against what he terms «unfounded assumptions» by prosecutors.
