THE 1MDB suit in the United States has hit a snag with possible witnesses too afraid to talk to the FBI, reports Bloomberg today.

In a federal court filing in Los Angeles yesterday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said several individuals in “certain foreign countries” are concerned for their safety, while others say it’s too dangerous to cooperate with the criminal probe into 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

The development comes ahead of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s visit to Washington and President Donald Trump next week. 

Najib, who until last year was the chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by the attorney-general of any involvement in the state investor’s multi-billion-ringgit losses.

Bloomberg said witnesses, who have come forward to provide information, have told the FBI they’re worried about putting “the safety and security of both themselves and their families at serious risk”.

In its filing, the FBI cited Malaysian news reports of local officials who have been arrested because of their purported role in investigating embezzlement in 1MDB.

It cited the August 29 shooting of the driver of former Malaysian attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, who opened the initial probe into 1MDB, as a possible warning to the former prosecutor not to cooperate with the US.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a criminal investigation into funds allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB and has sought to delay civil suits filed in the past two years to forfeit more than US$1 billion (RM4.3 billion) in real estate and other assets.

In the civil cases, the department alleged that between 2009 and 2015, more than US$4.5 billion belonging to 1MDB was diverted by high-level officials of the state investor and their associates.

In June, the DoJ filed another suit to seize US$540 million in assets, including the US$165 million yacht Equanimity, owned by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, and the rights to comedy movie Dumb and Dumber To, produced by Red Granite, a production house co-owned by Riza Aziz, Najib’s stepson.

Other assets were acquired by Khadem al Qubaisi, the former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co.

The trusts holding the assets on behalf of Low, Aziz, al Qubaisi and their families are contesting the forfeiture actions and oppose the request to put the civil cases on hold.

The Low trusts have asked the US to supply it with the identities of witnesses, sources of evidence, and thousands of documents relevant to the criminal investigation, according to the FBI.

The US investigation is part of a global effort to track how much of the US$6 billion that 1MDB raised for development projects was embezzled or involved in money laundering.

Meanwhile, the opposition has branded Najib’s White House visit as “shameful”, given that the DoJ has accused him of being a kleptocrat in relation to the 1MDB scandal. The DoJ cites Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) as the main beneficiary of the assets it is seeking to recover.

In September last year, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Rahman Dahlan confirmed that MO1 was Najib.

The prime minister’s last visit to the US was at the United Nations general assembly in 2015. He was conspicuously absent from last year UN assembly, with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi representing Malaysia at the UN. – September 6, 2017.