The United States has returned more than US$1.37 billion (RM5.58 billion) in assets linked to the misappropriation of 1MDB funds to Malaysia, according to law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said.
According to Free Malaysia Today, Azalina said the figure came from information provided by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). She disclosed this in a written parliamentary reply to Lim Lip Eng (PH-Kepong), who asked how much money and how many assets derived from 1MDB misappropriation had been recovered from the US.
According to The Edge Malaysia, a substantial amount of funds and assets linked to 1MDB remain detained, frozen or subject to forfeiture proceedings in the US and several other foreign jurisdictions.
Azalina said the exact value of these remaining assets could not be determined at this time. She cited the progress of ongoing legal proceedings and fluctuations in market value as the main obstacles to a precise figure.
The 1MDB scandal, which surfaced in 2015, involved the systemic looting of billions of dollars from a state-owned investment fund. International money laundering investigations spanned multiple jurisdictions including Switzerland, Singapore and the US.
