How Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal Shook the Financial World

Read More: Ex-Malaysia PM Najib Razak Faces Court for Biggest 1MDB Corruption Trial

Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, was supposed to promote development. Instead, it has spurred investigations around the world into deal-making, election spending and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak. The figures are mind-boggling: Of the $8 billion that 1MDB raised via bond sales, the US alleges more than half was siphoned off. Angry voters ousted Najib in a 2018 election that ended his party’s 61 years of rule, and four years later he was imprisoned in the first of a series of trials. Goldman Group Inc. has agreed to pay more than $5 billion, including a record $2.3 billion fine in the US, and enter its first-ever guilty plea for its role in the scandal.