This is certainly good news!
The United States Embassy Kuala Lumpur just revealed in a Facebook post that the US will return more than RM800 million to Malaysia from the recovered 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) funds.
US Ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John P Cronan met with our Attorney General Tommy Thomas and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to confirm the commencement of the returning process for the funds. A statement – which was released via the AG Chambers Malaysia’s FB page – read,
“The Government of Malaysia is pleased to announce that the Government of the United States of America (US) has returned, and will be returning substantial monies to Malaysia, representing the first instalment of funds recovered from asset seizures related to 1MDB under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative of the US Department of Justice (DOJ).”
You can read the entire statement below:
According to the US Embassy KL’s FB post, the US will return about USD196 million (RM812.9 million) to us as part of the first instalment of funds recovered from asset seizures. The funds which were returned and will be returned are as mentioned below:
- USD57,036,688.68 (RM233,701,605.23) from Red Granite Pictures. This amount comes from a court settlement in California in March 2018. FYI, this money has already been received by us!
- USD139,000,000 (RM576,196,700) from the sale of Manhattan’s Park Lane Hotel in February 2019. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the process of returning the aforementioned amount to Malaysia.
Ambassador Kamala was quoted as saying,
“We are extremely pleased that this first tranche of assets from this Justice Department investigation is being transferred back to Malaysia, demonstrating the US commitment to return these assets for the benefit of the people of Malaysia.”
“This is an important symbol of the cooperation between our two countries – (a) cooperation that demonstrates our shared commitment to good governance, combatting official corruption, and ensuring justice (is) served.”
You can see the whole post from the US Embassy KL’s FB below:
Well, this huge amount of money will definitely help our recovering economy and it could also be used to settle our debts. That said, we hope all the monies which were stolen from the 1MDB funds will be returned as well.
Also read: BREAKING: PDRM Has Proof That Rosmah’s Pink Diamond Was Bought with 1MDB Money