Malaysia’s scandal-hit 1MDB sues Amicorp, seeks $1bn for alleged fraud

The scandal-hit fund says Amicorp ‘played a vital role’ in facilitating the laundering of more than $7bn.

Malaysia’s scandal-hit 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund has said it will sue corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO Toine Knipping for more than $1bn, for allegedly facilitating more than $7bn in fraudulent transactions over a five-year period.

The insolvent 1MDB alleges that Amicorp, with its headquarters in Hong Kong, created and managed a complex conspiracy consisting of layers of shell companies, sham transactions, and fraudulent financial structures that obscured the true origin and destination of the funds.

“We are bringing this action to seek justice for the role we allege Amicorp played in facilitating the laundering and ultimate dissipation of billions of dollars in stolen funds,” 1MDB said in a statement on Monday.

It highlighted that Amicorp “played a vital role in enabling sovereign wealth fund to be defrauded by facilitating the laundering of over $7 billion in misappropriated funds between 2009 and 2014”.

Stolen funds were purportedly routed through Singapore, Barbados, Curacao, Hong Kong, and the British Virgin Islands, 1MDB said.

It further alleged that Amicorp provided access to the global financial system through Amicorp Bank, which is registered in Barbados, and provided fund entities and banking services to allow the repeated cycling of assets, giving the impression that 1MDB’s assets had been invested and generated returns when in fact they had been misappropriated.

The Malaysian fund said it is seeking damages for the losses it incurred from Amicorp’s “dishonest” assistance in breaches of fiduciary duty and conspiracy to commit unlawful acts, adding the legal action was part of a global effort to recover stolen 1MDB assets.

Last week, a Malaysian court approved the government’s application to bar PetroSaudi International and its chief executive from accessing $340m connected to 1MDB.

The Malaysian ruling came after Tarek Obaid, the Swiss-Saudi chief executive of the oil exploration and production company, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison in Switzerland over the embezzlement of $1.8bn from 1MDB.

The multibillion-dollar financial scandal has led to criminal investigations around the world for years, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

Investigators in Malaysia and the US had previously estimated that $4.5bn was siphoned away from 1MDB since its inception in 2009 by several people and used to buy items ranging from artwork to a superyacht.

The scandal also led to the fall of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government in 2018. Najib is currently serving a six-year jail term for corruption related to a massive financial scandal at 1MDB.

He has filed an appeal to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest and a hearing has been fixed for January 6.