TWO PetroSaudi International Ltd officers were indicted in Switzerland over charges they helped to steal US$1.8 billion (RM8 billion) from 1MDB between 2009 and 2011, media reports said.

The Swiss Attorney-General’s Office (OAG) said the two had schemed with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho to set up a joint venture for a fake project in Turkmenistan to defraud the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

It said it had filed an indictment against “two PetroSaudi managers” for fraud, aggravated criminal mismanagement and aggravated money laundering.

The two accused were not named in the statement from the OAG.

Together with Low, the pair had “proposed an investment scheme consisting of a purported government-to-government’ transaction” between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia through 1MDB, it said.

The OAG said the 1MDB fund was duped in 2009 into signing off on a US$1 billion investment deal that landed the joint venture in debt to PetroSaudi to the tune of US$700 million. 

It said US$700 million of the money was transferred to a Swiss bank account in the name of a company owned by Low, who transferred US$85 million to one accused, who in turn transferred US$33 million to the other, the statement said.

The trio next persuaded the 1MDB board to authorise an “Islamic loan” of US$830 million to the set-up.

“The funds transferred were also misappropriated.”

The accused laundered the money via bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere and used the funds to buy real estate in Switzerland and London, jewellery and private equity, said the OAG.

Spanning the globe and implicating some of Malaysia’s highest ranking officials, the 1MDB scandal has been described by Singaporean prosecutors as the “largest ever money-laundering case” investigated by the state. – April 26, 2023.