The whopping $4.5bn disappeared between 2009 and 2015 from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian state development fund set up a decade ago by Najib Razak, the then prime minister.
It’s been branded the world’s biggest robbery and at the center of the scandal are the former Prime Minister Najib Razak and the now-fugitive Malaysian financier and alleged mastermind of the scam, Jho Low.
More than $600M ended up in Mr. Najib’s personal bank accounts and he denies wrongdoing and says the money was a gift from an unnamed Saudi royal. He now faces almost 40 criminal charges and Jho Low is wanted in Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.
This alleged scandal came to light when the dissatisfied former PetroSaudi employee, Xavier Justo has leaked more than 200,000 confidential emails containing evidence of alleged criminal activity.