KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Malaysia's 1MDB said on Monday it

was suing corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO Toine
Knipping for more than $1 billion for allegedly facilitating more than $7
billion in fraudulent transactions over a five-year period.

The scandal-wracked sovereign wealth fund claimed Amicorp, which is
headquartered in Hong Kong, had used shell companies and sham transactions.

Its legal action filed in the British Virgin Islands was part of efforts to
recover stolen assets, 1MDB said.

"We are bringing this action to seek justice for the role we allege Amicorp
played in facilitating the laundering and ultimate dissipation of billions of
dollars in stolen funds," it said in a statement.

"There is, in our view, strong evidence to suggest that Amicorp -- at the
highest levels -- knew they were involved in a dishonest and illegal money
laundering scheme designed to transfer large sums of cash away from its
intended beneficiary -- the people of Malaysia."

It added that Amicorp "played a vital role in enabling sovereign wealth fund
to be defrauded by facilitating the laundering of over $7 billion in
misappropriated funds between 2009 and 2014".

The fund said the estimated legal claims it is seeking amounted to more than
$1 billion.

Last week, a Malaysian court approved the government's application to bar
PetroSaudi International and its chief executive from accessing $340 million
connected to 1MDB.

The Malaysian ruling came after Tarek Obaid, the Swiss-Saudi chief executive
of the oil exploration and production company, was sentenced in August to
seven years in prison in Switzerland over the embezzlement of $1.8 billion
from 1MDB.

The multi-billion-dollar financial scandal has led to criminal investigations
around the world for years, including in the United States, Switzerland and
Singapore.

It is alleged that billions of dollars were pilfered from 1MDB by a number of
people and used to buy items ranging from artwork to a superyacht.

The scandal led to the fall of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's
government in 2018.

Najib is serving a six-year jail term for corruption related to a massive
financial scandal at 1MDB.

He has filed an appeal to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest
and a hearing has been fixed for January 6.