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🏦 1MDB scandal

1MDB scandal story -- 2015 reporting to the SRC conviction

How 1MDB became a global case after 2015 journalism, U.S. kleptocracy forfeitures, Goldman resolutions, and Najib Razak's 2020 SRC International conviction.

The public story has two capitals: Kuala Lumpur, where a prime minister was convicted, and New York, where a bank paid and a partner pleaded.

The beats below follow Sarawak Report, the Journal, the DOJ complaints, and the SRC judgment.

Beats

  1. A development fund raises dollars

    1MDB's 2009 creation and the 2012-2013 Goldman bond sales built a balance sheet that later complaints said was drained through a chain of companies.

  2. 2015 document journalism

    Sarawak Report and the Wall Street Journal published trails that tied the fund to Jho Low, to Najib's accounts, and to luxury spending abroad.

  3. DOJ kleptocracy complaints

    From 2016 the United States sought to forfeit specific assets as 1MDB proceeds, making Hollywood and real estate part of a civil docket.

  4. Bankers plead and a bank pays

    Leissner's 2018 plea and Goldman's 2020 ~$2.9 billion resolutions are the Wall Street legal ending. Ng's 2022 Brooklyn conviction followed.

  5. SRC conviction in Kuala Lumpur

    Najib's 28 July 2020 guilty verdict, affirmed in 2022, is the political principal's recorded conviction. Jho Low remained outside custody.

The story on the public record is a completed Malaysian conviction plus a set of U.S. civil and banker criminal cases -- not a single courtroom that tried every dollar.

Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.

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