The Seychelles is helping an international investigation into the troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the Indian Ocean archipelago nation’s Financial Intelligence Unit said.
Transactions involving 1MDB, which has piled up US$11 billion in debt, are at the center of corruption and money laundering investigations in jurisdictions that include the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates.
“The Financial Intelligence Unit [FIU] has been assisting in an international investigation into allegations surrounding the strategic Malaysian fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB),” the unit said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
“Detailed information relating to offshore entities registered in Seychelles and other matters were passed to the competent authorities of investigating states,” it said.
The statement was sent by Seychelles president’s office on behalf of the FIU. It is the first public acknowledgement that Seychelles has joined the widening investigation into 1MDB, whose advisory board is chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The FIU did not name any entities involved in the investigation. The nation’s Financial Services Authority said a search of companies registered in Seychelles would not provide information regarding shareholders or company directors.
A Malaysian parliamentary investigation found that US$4.2 billion of 1MDB’s money is unaccounted for or went to overseas bank accounts whose owners could not be ascertained.
It said about US$700 million was sent without board approval to an account with private banker RBS Coutts in Geneva, Switzerland, under the name of Good Star Ltd. The report said could not determine who owned the Good Star account. RBS Coutts has declined to comment.
In February, the Swiss attorney-general’s office said it believed US$4 billion had been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies.
Singapore announced it had seized a “large number of bank accounts” as part of investigations into a company closely linked to 1MDB.
The Seychelles and other offshore financial centers have increasingly come under the spotlight as global leaders seek to clamp down on money laundering and the use of so-called tax havens.
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