Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Note: View the complaint here.
View the stipulation and request to enter consent judgment of forfeiture here.
The Justice Department announced today that it has reached an agreement to recover an additional $20 million in misappropriated 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds. In June 2024, the department announced it has already recovered and returned and assisted in returning to Malaysia approximately $1.4 billion.
Beginning in 2016, a landmark effort encompassing now 43 civil forfeiture actions filed in the Central District of California and one in the District of Columbia by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) led to the seizure of over $1.7 billion in stolen assets. This is the largest recovery to date under the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. The funds include both funds finally forfeited to the government and funds the department assisted in recovering and returning. The department continues to litigate actions against additional assets allegedly linked to this scheme.
According to court documents, the funds from 1MDB, formerly Malaysia’s investment development fund, were laundered through major financial institutions worldwide, including in the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg.
As alleged in the civil forfeiture complaints, from 2009 through 2015, more than $4.5 billion in funds belonging to 1MDB were misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates, and Low Taek Jho, also known as aka Jho Low, through a criminal scheme involving international money laundering and embezzlement. Some of the embezzlement proceeds were also allegedly used to pay bribes. As alleged in the complaint filed in this case, tens of millions of dollars in funds misappropriated from 1MDB were paid to companies owned and controlled by Frank White Jr. and others. The unlawful source of these funds was unknown to White Jr. at the time of the payment. White Jr. has consented to $20 million in forfeiture in this case, all of which derives from these embezzled funds.
In conjunction with the agreement announced today, White Jr.’s company, DuSable Capital Management LLC (DuSable), submitted amended filings pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The amended filings disclose additional political activities performed by DuSable for the government of Malaysia, including lobbying the U.S. government to provide non-financial support for a solar project in Malaysia.
1MDB was created by the government of Malaysia to promote economic development in Malaysia through global partnerships and foreign direct investment. Its funds were intended to be used for improving the well-being of the Malaysian people. Instead, funds held by 1MDB and proceeds of bonds issued for and on behalf of 1MDB were misappropriated and spent on a wide variety of extravagant items, including luxury homes and properties in Beverly Hills, California, New York, and London; a 300-foot superyacht; and fine art by Monet and Van Gogh. The funds also were sent into numerous business investments, including a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills, a movie production company that made “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the redevelopment of the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, and shares in EMI, the largest private music-rights holder. As alleged, other funds were provided to various public officials and co-conspirators.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny for the Eastern District of New York; and Assistant Director in Charge James E. Dennehy of the FBI New York Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI’s International Corruption Squad in New York is leading this investigation.
MLARS Trial Attorney Joshua Sohn is prosecuting the civil forfeiture case. MLARS Trial Attorney Joshua Sohn and former MLARS Trial Attorney Sean Fern, Deputy Chief Erik Paulsen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section, and Trial Attorney Christine Bonomo of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section investigated the case. Asset Forfeiture Section Chief Jonathon Galatzan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California provided critical assistance with the investigation and prosecution.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is providing substantial assistance. MLARS’ Program Operations Unit, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California have also provided significant support.
Significant assistance has also been provided to the Justice Department over the course of its work in the investigations and civil and criminal litigation by the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, Royal Malaysian Police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority, U.K. National Crime Agency, Attorney General’s Chambers of the Territory of the British Virgin Islands, Attorney General’s Office of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and Guernsey Economic Crime Division, International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre, Attorney General’s Chambers of Singapore, Singapore Police Force — Commercial Affairs Division, Office of the Attorney General and Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland, judicial investigating authority of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Criminal Investigation Department of the Grand-Ducal Police of Luxembourg, Republic of Indonesia, Latvian authorities, and French authorities, including the Parquet National Financier and Agency for Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC).
The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is led by a team of dedicated MLARS prosecutors in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies, and often with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, to forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption and, where appropriate, to repatriate those recovered assets to governments for the benefit of the people harmed by these acts of corruption and abuse of office. Individuals with information about possible proceeds of foreign corruption located in or laundered through the United States should email kleptocracy@usdoj.gov or submit information at tips.fbi.gov/.