KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Four special edition Bugatti Veyron sports cars believed to be linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal have been confiscated by the authorities in Germany.
German tabloid Bild reported that the luxury cars were confiscated by Germany’s Criminal Investigation Department 7, which specialises in white-collar crimes, from a private storage facility in Munich last week as part of an ongoing investigation into the Malaysian sovereign investment fund.
According to the German newspaper, the seizure took place as part of a request for legal assistance from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Bern, Switzerland.
Presently, PetroSaudi chief executive Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony, a director at the Saudi oil exploration and production company, are on trial at Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona.
Obaid is a Swiss-Saudi dual national, while Mahony is a Swiss-British dual national.
Both men stand accused of involvement in a vast embezzlement orchestrated by Malaysian fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, who has been linked to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Obaid and Mahony are reported to be charged with misappropriating at least US$1.8 billion, transferred by 1MDB in connection with a joint venture with the Saudi oil exploration and production company PetroSaudi, and laundered the money to enrich themselves and others between 2009 and 2015.
