The lawyer of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been charged with money laundering by anti-corruption agents looking into how billions of dollars went missing from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Muhammad Shafee is leading a defence team for Najib, who himself faces charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power at SRC International, a former 1MDB unit. Shafee pleaded not guilty to two counts of money laundering and another two counts of evading taxes by making false declaration of his income tax. Singapore returned 1MDB funds worth $11.1m last week, and Malaysia also got back a $250m superyacht. Malaysia “will be lucky if we get 30% back” from the 1MDB funds, Lim Guan Eng said at the CLSA Investors’ Forum in Hong Kong.

Source: The Guardian September 13, 2018 06:33 UTC