Malaysian PM hopes to get back lost funds

Malaysia's new Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has said he believes most of the money missing in a notorious corruption scandal can be returned.

The row over the 1 Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund dogged his predecessor, Najib Razak, and contributed to his shock defeat.

"We believe that we can get most of the 1MDB money back," Dr. Mahathir said.

Malaysia's former strongman is back in power at the age of 92 following a gap of 15 years.

He came out of retirement to oppose Mr. Najib, a former ally, as the 1MDB scandal raged two years ago.

Mr. Najib was accused of pocketing some $700m (£520m) from the fund, which he himself had set up, but he vehemently denied the allegations and was cleared by Malaysian authorities.

The fund, meanwhile, is still being investigated by several countries.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">People cluster round to watch Mahathir Mohamad sworn in as Malaysia’s 7th PM (he was its 4th too). Cheers when he’s finished - they really are delighted to have him back. But what does his disparate coalition government do next? Is he the man the cleanse the Augean stables? <a href="https://t.co/8vRhujep8J">pic.twitter.com/8vRhujep8J</a></p>— Jonathan Head (@pakhead) <a href="https://twitter.com/pakhead/status/994580430115430400?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">May 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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What is the 1MDB scandal about?

Set up in 2009, the fund was meant to turn the capital city Kuala Lumpur into a financial hub and boost the economy through strategic investments.

But it started to attract negative attention in early 2015 after it missed payments for some of the $11bn it owed to banks and bondholders.

Then the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported it had seen a paper trail that allegedly traced close to $700m from the fund to Mr Najib's personal bank accounts.

Late last year, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the scandal as "kleptocracy at its worst".

The US government has been looking to seize more than $1.7bn in assets believed to have been stolen from the fund.

Asked on Thursday if the new government would introduce changes in agencies accused of acting on Mr. Najib's behalf, Malaysia's new prime minister replied: "Certain heads must fall."

"We have to increase the confidence of investors in the administration," he said.

Dr. Mahathir also renewed his promise to seek to have his former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, released and pardoned.

When Dr. Mahathir was previously in power, Anwar was jailed for corruption and sodomy after calling for economic and political reforms.

He was released in 2004 but jailed again under Mr. Najib in 2015. 

He is currently due for release next month.


SOURCE: BBC News
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