Liquidators for 1MDB, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, have sued Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, reporting that the latter enabled fraud that led to over USD 2.7 billion in financial losses.
The initiative comes as the latest effort from 1MDB to recover funds belonging to it, from which US investigators state that USD 4.5 billion was stolen between 2009 and 2014 in a worldwide-spanning scheme. Before this, authorities from Malaysia said that there were large sums unaccounted for. A minimum of six countries, including Singapore and Switzerland, started investigations into 1MDB dealings in a global probe including banking and high-ranking officials globally.
As detailed by Reuters, Standard Chartered Bank commented on the current matter on 1 July 2025, saying that the financial institution emphatically rejected the claims. In its statement, the bank underlined that it had not yet received the legal filing documents, as well as that any claims by these companies are without ground. Standard Chartered Bank plans to defend any lawsuit commenced by the liquidators. Moreover, the bank mentioned that the liquidators had previously stated the firms involved were shell companies with no legitimate business.
Allegations against Standard Chartered
Liquidators from Kroll, a financial services company, filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Singapore. In a statement released on 30 June 2025, they mentioned that they were seeking to hold Standard Chartered accountable for its participation in reportedly enabling fraud to be committed against 1MDB. Additionally, another three companies in liquidation linked to 1MDB underline that Standard Chartered allowed over 100 intrabank transfers between 2009 and 2013 that enabled the concealment of the flow of stolen funds.
Furthermore, liquidators allege that the financial institution decided to overlook issues in relation to the transfer of funds, leading to losses. According to them, the transfers underline significant breaches and control failings which allowed the theft of public funds by individuals operating at the highest levels of the Malaysian government during that period.
