Former Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB has filed a $1bn claim against a Hong Kong-based corporate services provider for alleged fraud.

Amicorp Group, its chief executive officer Toine Knipping and eight related entities “played a vital role” in facilitating the alleged money-laundering of more than $7bn, according to the claim filed in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by the fund’s liquidators Kroll on behalf of 1MDB subsidiaries Aabar BVI, SRC and Brazen Sky. 

The proceedings are linked to the 1MDB fraud, which has been described by the media as the largest fraud in the world and has generated ancillary litigation and regulatory enforcement action in jurisdictions including London, the US, Malaysia and Singapore

According to Reuters, Malaysian and US investigators had previously estimated $4.5bn was siphoned away from 1MDB following its inception in 2009, implicating former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, senior Goldman Sachs staff and other high-level officials. 

Najib, who denies wrongdoing, was jailed for corruption in 2022 and had his 12-year jail sentence halved by Malaysia’s pardons board in February.  

The BVI claim alleges Amicorp facilitated the laundering of more than $7bn in misappropriated funds between 2009 and 2014.

It alleges the Hong Kong-based defendant created and managed shell companies, sham transactions and fraudulent financial structures to layer and obscure the true origin and destination of the funds, later allegedly routed through various countries including Singapore, Barbados, Curacao, Hong Kong and the BVI.

The claim also argues that access to Amicorp’s Barbadian-registered bank had enabled the repeated cycling of assets through the claimants, fraudulently laying a paper trail that gave the impression that 1MDB’s assets had been invested and generated returns when, in fact, they had been misappropriated.

A spokesperson for the 1MDB Board said: “We are bringing this action to seek justice for the role we allege Amicorp played in facilitating the laundering and ultimate dissipation of billions of dollars in stolen funds. 

“We allege this was achieved through the creation of structures designed to purposefully obscure the theft, and that Amicorp deliberately and knowingly created complex structures to mask the stolen monies as assets and make them difficult to trace.”

The litigation forms part of a global strategy brought by the former sovereign wealth fund to recover assets it says were stolen from 1MDB. 

Baker & Partners’s BVI office represents Kroll and 1MDB, instructing Tom Smith KC of South Square Chambers and James Bailey of 7 King’s Bench Walk. 

Lim Chee Wee Partnership, the leading Malaysian law firm, acts as global coordinating counsel for all 1MDB-related asset recovery efforts.

Amicorp Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Goldman Sachs reached a $3.9bn settlement with the Malaysian government for its role in the scandal in July 2020, the BBC reported.