Cover image via AFP/SCMPAfter Switzerland's Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) opened criminal proceedings against Malaysia's troubled 1MDB last month, the Swiss authorities on Wednesday, 2 September, said they had frozen funds worth tens of millions of US dollars linked to Malaysia's state fund on suspicion of corruption and money-laundering. The OAG, however, declined to give any detail about the ongoing case.
Image via FT
According to Anna Wegelin, a spokeswoman for the OAG, the Swiss investigators are "analysing and consolidating the evidence"
"At this early stage of the procedure, the OAG is analysing and consolidating evidence. The OAG is already in contact with the Malaysian authorities. International cooperation with foreign countries, in particular with Malaysia, will probably be necessary to establish the facts," she said.
The state fund, which was founded by PM Najib Razak, has amassed USD11 billion in debt it is struggling to repay, on top of which Najib himself has been accused of taking USD700 million linked to 1MDB.
Swiss financial regulator FINMA has also said it was checking with some Swiss banks on whether they have done business with 1MDB.
Meanwhile, 1MDB later released a statement saying "as far as 1MDB is aware, none of the company's bank accounts has been frozen"
Image via TMI
PM Najib had set up 1MDB back in 2009 with claims of strengthening Malaysian economic development, but the state fund has faced criticism for lack of transparency over its transactions
Meanwhile, José Ugaz, the chairman of Transparency International, a global anticorruption group, told a conference in KL on Tuesday, 1 September, that "there is a corruption crisis here", while observing that Najib had in recent weeks dismissed an AG and has taken action against newspapers reporting on the 1MDB issue. "These are not the actions of a government that is fighting corruption."
Image via Transparency International
