Wednesday 16 / July / 2025
Kuala Lumpur: A senior official in Malaysia said on Tuesday that the US had repatriated $57 million worth of funds from IMDB assets.
The funds were forfeited by Red Granite Pictures, a movie distribution and production company noted for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and 'Daddy's Home'.
Malaysia's Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, said in a statement, “The Government of Malaysia is pleased to announce that the United States of America 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 DOJ.
“It may be recalled that the DOJ recently announced that out of the $4.5 billion wrongfully diverted from 1MDB, the value of assets that the DOJ was seeking to forfeit through its numerous civil forfeiture complaints filed from 2016 to 2019 was estimated at US$1.7 billion."
“These assets include the luxury superyacht, Equanimity, which was judicially sold by the Malaysian Admiralty Court last month for $126 million.
“The first tranche of returned funds of $57,036,688.68 was credited into the 1MDB asset recovery account, a segregated trust account, opened specifically for this purpose," Thomas added.
“This sum was forfeited from Red Granite Pictures, a US-based film production company linked to former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his step-son Riza Aziz and arose from a $60 million-settlement recorded before the Court of California.”
Thomas said a deduction of some $3 million was made to reimburse costs incurred by the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in investigating, seizing, litigating and securing a settlement for the Red Granite funds.
He stated that it also included in the deduction were the costs incurred by the DOJ and FBI in investigating, seizing and maintaining the Equanimity when it was arrested in Indonesian waters before it arrived in Malaysian waters.
Thomas added that the DOJ is in the process of remitting a further sum of $139 million which was the result of the sale of Jho Low’s interest in Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel.
Additionally, Thomas said that a separate sum of SG$50 million of funds traceable to 1MDB have been ordered by the Singapore Courts to be repatriated.
Malaysia's attorney general highlighted how such a recovery could not be achieved without the assistance and excellent cooperation that the Malaysian authorities enjoy with counterparts in the US and Singapore.
“We express our gratitude to them. 1MDB asset recovery efforts across the globe are still ongoing, and Malaysia is optimistic of recovering further monies in the coming months,” he said.
