1MDB scandal (2015): A development fund raises dollars

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was a Malaysian state-owned development fund created in 2009 from a Terengganu vehicle. By 2015, Sarawak Report and the Wall Street Journal were publishing documents that tied enormous outflows to Jho Low (Low Taek Jho), to accounts associated with then-prime minister Najib Razak, and to a set of Goldman Sachs bond offerings in 2012-2013.

The U.S. Department of Justice, through its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, filed civil forfeiture complaints from 2016 alleging that more than $3.5 billion -- later described as on the order of $4.5 billion -- had been diverted from 1MDB. Those complaints named Hollywood financing (including Red Granite Pictures and The Wolf of Wall Street), yachts, jewelry, and real estate as alleged proceeds. Goldman Sachs later paid about $2.9 billion in 2020 to resolve U.S. and other government actions; former Goldman partner Tim Leissner pleaded guilty in 2018.

In Malaysia, the High Court convicted Najib on 28 July 2020 on seven counts in the SRC International case (a 1MDB-related unit), including abuse of power and money laundering, and imposed twelve years' imprisonment and a fine. The Federal Court upheld the conviction on 23 August 2022. Jho Low remained a fugitive in the public record into the mid-2020s. Later Malaysian pardon and house-arrest developments changed custody conditions; they did not erase the 2020 judgment as a recorded conviction.