Information
Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court convicted two executives, Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony, for embezzling over $1.8 billion from Malaysia’s state investment fund, 1MDB. Obaid and Mahony, involved with the oil exploration company PetroSaudi, were sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively, and ordered to reimburse most of the embezzled funds. The court found that they misled the 1MDB board by falsely claiming PetroSaudi had Saudi government backing, leading to fraudulent dealings that enriched them significantly.
1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was a Malaysian government investment project that became embroiled in a global corruption scandal, implicating high-profile individuals, including former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The scandal, which involved an estimated $4.5 billion in embezzled funds, also implicated international figures and institutions such as financier Jho Low, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank. Efforts to recover the stolen assets continue, with various items, including luxury goods and real estate, being seized or sold.
Source: dpa, Reuters
So what
This is probably one of the most famous fraud cases in modern history and will likely continue to come up for several years to come, maybe one day the main POI Jho Low. Though it seems unlikely that Malaysia will ever recover all of the lost assets, they will continue to try for quite some time due to the amount of money involved. If you are interested in international fraud, then this case is a good one to check out, it is very complex in nature and has some big players.
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