Amicorp Group to dispute $1 billion legal claim by Malaysia's 1MDB for alleged fraud

KUALA LUMPUR: Amicorp Group has said it will dispute a claim for more than $1 billion filed by scandal-hit Malaysian fund 1MDB, denying allegations it knowingly facilitated more than $7 billion in fraudulent transactions related to the misappropriation of 1MDB funds.

Corporate services provider Amicorp in a statement late on Monday said it would defend itself and challenge the effort by sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which filed a legal claim last week in the British Virgin Islands.

1MDB has alleged Hong Kong-headquartered Amicorp and its CEO played a vital role in enabling the Malaysian fund to be defrauded between 2009 and 2014. The claim is one of the biggest filed by 1MDB related to the multibillion dollar graft scandal.

Malaysian and U.S. investigators have previously estimated $4.5 billion was siphoned away from 1MDB in a complex, globe-spanning scheme that implicated former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) staff and high-level officials elsewhere.

1MDB alleges Amicorp created and managed a complex conspiracy consisting of layers of shell companies, sham transactions, and fraudulent financial structures that obscured the true origin and destination of the funds.

But Amicorp said the misappropriated 1MDB funds were "ill-gotten by or for the benefit" of Malaysian senior government officials and the top senior management of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co and its unit Aabar Investments PJS.

The two UAE firms agreed in 2023 to pay $1.8 billion to Malaysia to settle a legal dispute over the 1MDB scandal.

Najib, who helped found 1MDB in 2009, is currently in prison for corruption and money laundering for receiving about $10 million from former 1MDB unit SRC International and has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Najib's 12-year prison sentence was later halved by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia's former king, but he faces several other graft trials related to 1MDB.

Amicorp said it has not been the subject of any administrative investigations or party to any civil suits, and has cooperated with Singapore and Swiss government agencies and criminal prosecutors based on "mutual assistance" in criminal matters. It did not provide further details.