KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — The Malaysian chapter of Transparency International hopes money from 1MDB-linked assets that US investigators recover from its deal with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho will return safely to the country.
It called four transparency and accountability in the repatriation to ensure that Malaysians benefit from the recovery of the funds alleged to have been stolen from government-owned company 1MDB and urged supervision of the recouped amount to prevent future theft.
Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Muhammad Mohan pointed out that 1MDB was intended to benefit Malaysians, but noted that over US$4.5 billion of the company’s wealth appears to have been embezzled with much of it allegedly spent on luxury goods and property around the world.
“While we are grateful to the US Department of Justice for pushing to recover these assets, we sincerely hope that Malaysian civil society will be included in the process of returning them to Malaysia and monitoring their use.
“There should be no chance of the returned funds being stolen again. We also hope that any corrupt officials who misappropriated funds from 1MDB will face criminal charges in all relevant jurisdictions,” he said in a statement today.
The watchdog highlighted that the Global Forum on Asset Recovery that was hosted by the US and the UK in 2017 had resulted in the agreement of asset return principles, including Principles 4 and 10 that the watchdog said “call for transparency and accountability and inclusion of non-governmental stakeholders in the return of assets confiscated in corruption cases”.
The TI-M chief’s statement comes after the US DoJ announced on October 30 that it had reached a settlement agreement for the recovery of assets worth more than US$700 million from Low, his family and a Cayman Islands entity holding the assets on trust.
The DoJ said these assets to be recovered are located in the US, UK and Switzerland, including high-end properties in Beverly Hills, New York and London; a luxury boutique hotel in Beverly Hills; and tens of millions of dollars in business investments allegedly made by Low with money that can be traced back to 1MDB funds.
The DoJ also said that the conclusion of this deal with Low and its previous assistance to Malaysia would translate to the US having recovered or assisted in the recovery of more than US$1 billion in assets linked to the 1MDB “international money laundering and bribery scheme”.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday reportedly said that Malaysia will be asking the US to hand over the assets it has recovered from Low.
