By Danial Azhar
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad said on Monday it has filed a legal claim of more than $1 billion against corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO, alleging the firm knowingly facilitated over $7 billion in fraudulent transactions.
The claim, among one of the biggest filed by 1MDB related to the multibillion dollar graft scandal, was filed in the British Virgin Islands against eight Amicorp entities and its Chief Executive Officer Toine Knipping, alleging that they played a vital role in enabling the sovereign wealth fund to be defrauded between 2009 and 2014, 1MDB said in a statement.
Amicorp Group did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment and repeated phone calls.
Malaysian and U.S. investigators had previously estimated $4.5 billion was siphoned away from 1MDB following its inception in 2009, implicating former Prime Minister Najib Razak, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) staff and high-level officials elsewhere. Najib is currently in prison but has denied wrongdoing.
1MDB alleges Hong Kong-headquartered Amicorp 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.
Stolen funds were purportedly routed through Singapore, Barbados, Curacao, Hong Kong, and the British Virgin Islands, 1MDB said.
It further allege Amicorp provided access to the global financial system through Amicorp Bank, a bank 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.
1MDB 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.
“There is, in our view, strong evidence to suggest that Amicorp – at the highest levels – knew they were involved in a dishonest and illegal money laundering scheme designed to transfer large sums of cash away from its intended beneficiary – the people of Malaysia,” a spokesperson for 1MDB said in the statement.
As of September this year, Malaysia has recovered 27.17 billion ringgit ($6.06 billion) linked to 1MDB, state news agency Bernama reported.
($1 = 4.4870 ringgit)
(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by Martin Petty and Michael Perry)
