KUALA LUMPUR – Putrajaya did not receive official notification regarding the disbandment of the United States’ Department of Justice’s (DoJ) unit which investigated the global 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal.
According to Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who is also the government spokesperson, the matter was not discussed during today’s Cabinet meeting.
“(The government was only made aware of the unit’s closure) through media reports. The issue was not specifically discussed during the Cabinet meeting today,” Fahmi told a press conference at his ministry’s complex in Putrajaya.
Last night, investigative journalist Bradley Hope reported the closure of the DoJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which had successfully helped Malaysia recover millions of dollars in misappropriated funds.
Citing sources referring to February 5 email by new US Attorney-General Pam Bondi on the immediate closure of the initiative and the KleptoCapture Task Force, Hope said in an X post that the “key objective” behind the disbandments is to gain control of a “multi-billion dollar forfeiture fund”.
Hope, who co-wrote Billion Dollar Whale with Tom Wright exposing Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho’s role in the 1MDB scandal, asserted that the fund contains “money seized from corrupt officials” which was meant to be returned to victim countries.
“Where’s that money headed (now)? Bondi’s memo critically mentions ‘other law enforcement purposes’. Multiple sources say this means funding new detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Texas,” he added.
The Kleptocracy Initiative was set up by the DoJ in 2010 to work in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies to forfeit proceeds of foreign official corruption. It was also mandated to return illicit proceeds to the people of the country stolen from.
Just before Donald Trump took office as US president on January 20, the DoJ on January 17 announced that it had reached an agreement to recover an additional US$20 million in funds misappropriated from 1MDB.
The US$20 million had been recovered from DuSable Capital Management LLC (DuSable), which according to the DOJ, had performed “political activities” for the government of Malaysia, “including lobbying the US government to provide non-financial support for a solar project in Malaysia”.
As of June 2024, the DOJ had recovered and returned to Malaysia approximately US$1.4 billion related to 1MDB.
Meanwhile, Fahmi also said that the Cabinet meeting today had not touched on recent reports that some 435 Malaysians are facing deportation from the US after receiving their final deportation orders from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Wisma Putra reportedly said yesterday that while it was aware of reports regarding Malaysians supposedly facing deportation under stricter US immigration policies, its embassy in Washington D.C has not received any formal notification from US authorities regarding such claims.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry also said it has not received any official requests for consular assistance from affected Malaysians, assuring that it remains in close contact with relevant authorities while engaging with the Malaysian community in the US. – February 7, 2025