Swiss to seize paintings linked to Malaysian state fund
Sydney - Swiss authorities planned to seize three valuable paintings allegedly bought with money from the beleaguered Malaysian state fund 1MDB, news reports said Friday.
The paintings include "La maison de Vincent a Arles" by Vincent Van Gogh and "Saint-Georges Majeur" and "Nympheas avec Reflets de Hautes Herbes" by Claude Monet, an official at the Swiss federal justice department was quoted as saying by Neue Luzerner newspaper.
The current location of the paintings was not given in the report.
The Swiss attorney general's office also opened investigations into other matters related to 1MDB.
On Wednesday, US authorities filed a lawsuit to seize more than 1 billion dollars in assets bought with money believed to have been misappropriated from 1MDB.
The fund was established in 2009 by Prime Minister Najib Razak to boost the Malaysian economy.
Najib's involvement has been a subject of investigation since the Wall Street Journal reported in July 2015 that 2.6 billion ringgit(673 million dollars) in the premier's personal bank accounts came from 1MDB.
- DPA
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