Malaysia investigators froze hundreds of millions in the 1MDB scandal. The move shows how anti-corruption officials are turning up the dial on the alleged $4.5 billion graft scheme.
Anti-graft investigators have frozen $273 million in over 400 bank accounts tied to 81 people and 55 companies believed to be linked to fraud, according to several media reports.
The stunning move comes less than two months after Malaysian voters booted Prime Minister Najib Razak in favor of nonagenarian Mohamad Mahatir, who governed from 1981 to 2003.
Under Mahathir and a coterie of new officials, the investigation into 1MDB has quickly regained impetus: Najib and his allegedly lavishly spending wife, Rosmah Mansor, have both given evidence to an anti-corruption body.
Dirty Dealings
The asset freeze by Malaysia's 1MDB task force raises the specter of criminal complaints, two years after two banks – Banca della Svizzera Italiana and Falcon Private Bank – were shut down in Singapore and several more including UBS and DBS were rapped.
The accounts frozen involve roughly 900 transactions, some made as recently as September 2015, Malaysian officials said. This is shortly before the U.S. went public with a global probe into 1MDB, which it has termed «kleptocracy at its worst.»
Protracted Investigation
Some of the accounts frozen belong to political parties and non-governmental organizations, meaning it could take months to ascertain who was behind the transactions.
News of the asset freeze comes as Najib's stepson, Riza Aziz, is reportedly summoned to give evidence to graft investigators on Tuesday. Aziz in March clinched a $60 million settlement over 1MDB alleged bankrolling films like «The Wolf of Wall Street» in 2013 through his Los Angeles production firm.
