Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia has recovered 1.4 billion ringgit (323 million USD) stolen from the country’s development fund 1MDB, PrimeMinister Muhyiddin Yassin's office said on March 17.
Another 6.9billion ringgit sourced fromthe scandal-hit fund has been identified and steps are being taken to recoverthe money, the office added.
The USDepartment of Justice (DoJ) returned to Malaysia nearly 200 million USDrecovered from asset seizures linked to the 1MDB in May 2019, but the second transfer of about 240 million USD was delayed last month.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak founded the1MDB investment fund in 2009, supposedly to serve Malaysia’s developmentthrough global partnerships and foreign direct investment.
Malaysian and US investigators believe that the fund has looted about 4.5billion USD, about 1 billion USD of which was sent to the Najib’s personal bank account.
The allegations contributed to Nazib’s shock election loss in 2018 and he has since been put on trial overthe scandal. At least six countries are investigating the scandal.
LastSeptember, the DoJ reached a deal with Malaysian financier Jho Low to retakealmost 1 billion USD in funds Low and his family had misappropriated from the1MDB./