A Singapore court has allowed a $2.7-billion lawsuit against Standard Chartered Bank to proceed over its alleged role in the looting of Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign fund, according to Reuters.
Liquidators for three companies linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad said the Singapore High Court has dismissed Standard Chartered’s bid to strike down their claim, clearing a major procedural hurdle in litigation that accuses the bank of enabling fraud that caused more than $2.7 billion in losses more than a decade ago, Reuters reported.
In a statement cited by the news agency, the liquidators described the ruling as “a significant legal victory” that allows them to keep pursuing money they say was misappropriated from 1MDB. “It also enables us to continue the work of recovering misappropriated assets that rightfully belong to the people of Malaysia,” they said.
The lawsuit, filed in June in Singapore, alleges that Standard Chartered permitted more than 100 intrabank transfers between 2009 and 2013 that helped disguise the movement of looted funds. The liquidators say the bank ignored clear warning signs around these transactions, contributing to the losses, according to Reuters.
Some of the money that moved through the bank’s accounts allegedly ended up in the personal account of former Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, Reuters reported.
Najib is serving a six-year prison sentence after being convicted of graft related to the 1MDB affair, a scandal that has toppled a government, shaken global banks and triggered investigations in at least six countries, including Singapore and Switzerland.
Standard Chartered has faced regulatory consequences before over its 1MDB exposure. In 2016, Singapore’s central bank fined the local unit of the lender S$5.2 million for anti–money laundering breaches tied to the scandal.
Read more at Reuters