Malaysia gets AMMB's first tranche of $583m in 1MDB Case

The government has so far repaid RM12.54 billion of 1MDB's debt. PHOTO: REUTERS

KUALA LUMPUR (BLOOMBERG) - Malaysia received the first payment of RM1.8 billion (S$583 million) from AMMB Holdings in settlement over the local lender's involvement in the 1MDB scandal, according to the finance ministry.

The government will get the remaining RM1.03 billion from AMMB in two tranches of RM515 million each in December 2021, and July 2022, the ministry said in a statement on Friday (July 2).

The money recovered from AMMB was deposited into Malaysia's Assets Recovery Trust Account, which has received RM18.176 billion of seized and repatriated funds. The money will be used mainly to repay the debts of the state investment fund, also known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd, the ministry said.

"However, the current balance of the trust account is only enough to pay off the principal and interest of 1MDB's debt for 2021 and 2022," Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said in the statement.

The government has so far repaid RM12.54 billion of 1MDB's debt and RM3.8 billion of the fund's former unit SRC International's debt, according to Mr Zafrul. As at June 30, the outstanding debt totalled RM39.66 billion for 1MDB and RM1.85 billion for SRC, he said.

The 1MDB financial scandal set off investigations in Asia, the US and Europe, and led to the historic change in government of Malaysia in 2018.

Goldman Sachs Group last year admitted its role in the biggest foreign bribery case in US enforcement history, reaching multiple international settlements in the billions of dollars to end probes into its fund-raising for 1MDB.

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