The public investigation is journalism first, then parallel civil and criminal work in several countries.
This page records those official and press steps. It does not describe how to hide a transfer or how to buy an asset with diverted funds.
Agencies
- Sarawak Report / Wall Street Journal — Published the 2015 document investigations that made 1MDB a global English-language enforcement target.
- U.S. Department of Justice (Kleptocracy) — Filed civil forfeiture complaints from 2016 and resolved banker and bank cases, including the 2020 Goldman package.
- Malaysian Attorney General / MACC — Charged Najib and others after 2018; obtained the 2020 SRC conviction and pursued additional 1MDB-related dockets.
- Other financial centers — Singapore, Switzerland, and others opened related bank and asset cases that fed the same recovery story.
What followed
- Document leaks to the press
2015 publications compared fund statements with bank trails and luxury-asset purchases.
- Foreign civil actions
DOJ forfeiture complaints listed specific property and alleged the theft-and-laundering theory in U.S. court.
- Banker cooperation
Leissner's 2018 plea gave prosecutors an insider account of the bond and bribery story.
- Malaysian charges after 2018
A new government charged Najib; the SRC trial produced a 2020 written judgment.
- Bank resolutions
The 2020 Goldman settlements closed the principal Wall Street corporate file for a stated dollar amount.
- Appeals and remaining fugitive work
The Federal Court affirmed SRC in 2022. International notices regarding Jho Low remained outstanding.
Turning points
- The 2015 publications — Once the Journal and Sarawak Report printed the account trails, 1MDB was no longer only a domestic Malaysian dispute.
- The 2018 election and Leissner plea — A change of government plus a Goldman partner's admission opened both the KL criminal path and the New York cooperation path.
- 28 July 2020 — The SRC guilty verdict made 'convicted' the correct status token for the political principal, independent of the U.S. civil file.
After-the-fact investigators followed published documents into forfeiture and trial. The remaining hunt is for a named fugitive, not for whether SRC happened.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.