Mahathir wants stolen funds back

New Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad said yesterday his government will seek to retrieve billions of dollars from a state investment fund believed to have been laundered in the United States, Switzerland and several other countries.

The government also said it plans to abolish an unpopular 6 per cent goods and services tax next month. Mahathir reopened a probe into a massive corruption scandal surrounding the 1MDB fund after his alliance won a stunning election victory last week, ending the National Front’s 60-year grip on power. Defeated leader Najeeb Razzak started the fund in 2009 and US investigators say at least $4.5 billion (Dh16.5 billion) was stolen and laundered by Najeeb’s associates, some of which landed in his bank account.

Mahathir, 92, said an initial investigation showed the scale of wrongdoing by Najeeb’s administration was more serious than expected.

Mahathir said he has met with ousted Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, who said he was preparing to file criminal charges against Najeeb when he was abruptly removed in 2015. Gani led an investigation by multiple agencies into the scandal at the time, which was later closed after Najeeb was cleared of wrongdoing.

“The focus on corruption is important because we need to get back money which is still in Switzerland, the US, Singapore and maybe Luxembourg. For this, we will contact the governments of the countries to recover the money there,” Mahathir said.

“The money belongs to Malaysia and it came from 1MDB. We will appeal for the money to be returned to Malaysia.”