FORMER de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim and a group of Malaysians are suing ANZ bank in Australia for allegedly assisting in siphoning off US$1.4 billion (RM5.5 billion) from 1MDB, reports The Australian today.

The funds were transferred into caretaker prime minister Najib Razak’s AmBank account in 2013. ANZ held a 25% stake in AmBank between 2011 and 2013.

Zaid has hired Sydney law firm Levitt Robinson to pursue a class-action suit against ANZ, focusing on the bank’s knowledge of about $US1.4 billion allegedly stolen from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bank transferred into Najib’s account.

Najib has admitted to receiving a RM2.6 billion donation from Saudi royals to fund the 13th general election.

The suit comes just weeks before crucial elections and is mounted by a group of “Malaysian citizens who are prepared to be publicly identified by becoming lead applicants in the prospective class action”, Levitt Robinson senior partner Stewart Levitt was quoted as saying by The Australian.

Three senior ANZ officials were warned about the suspicious movement of funds into Najib’s account, the paper said.

Last June, the United States Department of Justice filed several suits to seize more than US$1.7 billion in assets acquired by funds stolen from 1MDB.

US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said the 1MDB-linked assets accounted for nearly half of some US$3.5 billion in total proceeds seized or restrained by the DoJ, tied to money-laundering offences.

“This is kleptocracy at its worst,” Sessions said at a global forum on asset recovery in Washington last December, referring to the 1MDB case. – April 30, 2018.