KUALA LUMPUR • 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund at the centre of a massive corruption scandal, still had an estimated RM32.3 billion (S$10.5 billion) in outstanding debt as of September, the government said yesterday.

The authorities are investigating how billions of dollars went missing from 1MDB - set up in 2009 by former prime minister Najib Razak - a disappearance the government says led to the finance ministry having to bail out the fund.

Malaysia said in 2018 the government would have to pay about US$13 billion (S$17.5 billion) of 1MDB's dues.

Since April 2017, the government has provided RM9.4 billion in loans and advances to help 1MDB meet its financial commitments and debt obligations, according to the 2021 fiscal outlook report, released ahead of the government's budget announcement yesterday.

Malaysia has also recovered a total of RM13.4 billion in assets linked to 1MDB's financial trail as of the end of September, the report said. The amount includes about RM2.6 billion in cash and assets recovered and returned to Malaysia by the United States authorities, and US$2.5 billion paid by Goldman Sachs to settle a Malaysian probe into the investment bank's role in the 1MDB scandal.

Goldman Sachs, which had helped 1MDB raise a total of US$6.5 billion in bonds, has also guaranteed to help Malaysia recover US$1.4 billion more in 1MDB-linked assets.

The US has said about US$4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB in an elaborate scheme that spanned the globe and implicated high-level officials of the fund, Najib, Goldman executives, and others.

The Malaysian authorities say billions of dollars remain unaccounted for.

Najib was in July sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million after being found guilty of all seven charges in the first of his five trials relating to the 1MDB scandal. He is appealing against the conviction.

REUTERS