Authorities opened the probe after “concrete clues” concerning the embezzlement of funds coming from companies owned by the Malaysian state via “different offshore companies with accounts in Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg,” according to an e-mailed statement Thursday.
“The alleged facts concern in particular the amounts paid during the issuance of two bonds in May and October 2012,” prosecutors said in the statement. They will seek to “retrace the origin of four transfers during 2012 and one transfer in early 2013 for a total of several hundred million dollars, to an offshore company with an account in a bank in” Luxembourg.
Set up by the government in 2009 to build infrastructure with borrowed money, 1MDB amassed about 42 billion ringgit ($10.8 billion) of debt in less than five years, largely from assets in the energy sector. Its borrowings clouded the sovereign credit rating, weighing on the government’s contingent liabilities. The government said on Thursday that 1MDB’s finances won’t affect its fiscal policy.
Allegations of financial irregularities at 1MDB have also sparked probes in Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland. 1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, has consistently denied wrongdoing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net Christopher Elser, Shamim Adam
No comments:
Post a Comment