More than $3.5 billion traveled a trail of fraud from Malaysia
through a web of shell companies, with some fueling a spending binge on
Monet paintings and luxury real estate and at least $700 million flowing
back into accounts controlled by Malaysia’s prime minister.
Some
of the money was handled by international banks including Goldman Sachs
Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Standard Chartered Plc and
Deutsche Bank AG. A chunk of it funded a Hollywood blockbuster, “The Wolf of Wall Street.” More
than $13 million of it was wired to an account at a Las Vegas casino by
a stepson of Malaysia’s prime minister who gambled with an unidentified
actor whose description matches that of Leonardo DiCaprio.
It’s all laid out in a dozen filings Wednesday by U.S. prosecutors who
detailed an alleged scheme of international money laundering and
misappropriation stretching from 2009 to 2015. The Justice Department is
seeking to seize more than $1 billion worth of assets it says went
through U.S. banks from Malaysian development fund 1Malaysia Development
Berhad, known as 1MDB, and was ultimately used to illegally acquire assets.
The U.S. complaints lays the groundwork for tension with Malaysia, a
longtime ally on issues including counterterrorism and trade.
Prosecutors refer to a top Malaysian official who controlled accounts
that received hundreds of millions of dollars. The official isn’t
accused of wrongdoing.
The anonymous description lines up with
that of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who until a few months ago served as
the chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board.
Read more on Bloomberg
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