JPMorgan Chase will pay $330 million to resolve existing and potential claims relating to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, the bank and the Malaysian government said in an emailed joint statement Friday.
Separately Friday, Switzerland’s attorney general’s office said it is fining JPMorgan $3.7 million after authorities found the bank guilty of “failing to take all reasonable and necessary organizational measures to prevent acts of aggravated money laundering.”
That penalty relates to roughly $217.4 million in overseas transfers routed through JPMorgan in Switzerland between October 2014 and July 2015, in connection with oil deals supposedly backed by the Saudi government.
Two businessmen behind that venture, 1MDB PetroSaudi, were found guilty in Swiss criminal court last year of fraud, criminal mismanagement and money laundering.
Malaysia sued JPMorgan’s Swiss unit – along with similar units of Deutsche Bank and NatWest’s private bank Coutts – in civil court in 2021, alleging “negligence, breach of contract, conspiracy to defraud/injure and/or dishonest assistance.”
Malaysia sought $800 million for JPMorgan’s part in the case, according to court documents.
“We appreciate the collaboration with the Malaysian government in resolving past matters related to 1MDB, which have been thoroughly reviewed,” JPMorgan said Friday in a statement. “Since then, we’ve enhanced our controls, earning the trust of regulators in Switzerland and beyond.”
JPMorgan’s $330 million payout will go to Malaysia’s Assets Recovery Trust Account and comes “without admission of liability” from the bank.
As part of the settlement, JPMorgan and Malaysia will withdraw all pending appeals connected with the lawsuit.
JPMorgan is hardly the bank most impacted by the 1MDB scandal, in which financier Jho Low and various associates allegedly schemed to misappropriate more than $4.5 billion from the fund between 2009 and 2014.
Goldman Sachs has paid more than $5 billion in penalties – to Malaysia, the U.S. Justice Department and regulators in the U.K., Singapore and Hong Kong – in connection to the scandal. That includes $174 million in clawed-back compensation from executives, including now-CEO David Solomon and President John Waldron. But the bank said the two had not been involved in or aware of any illicit activity.
Goldman admitted paying more than $1 billion in bribes to obtain underwriting.
Additionally, Tim Leissner, Goldman’s former Southeast Asia chair who pleaded guilty in 2018 to bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges, was sentenced to two years in federal prison in May. Another ex-banker, Roger Ng, received a 10-year sentence in 2023 on charges of conspiring to launder money, conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing government officials, and conspiring to violate the FCPA by circumventing Goldman’s internal accounting controls.
In Singapore, court-appointed liquidators of three companies tied to 1MDB are suing Standard Chartered for $2.7 billion for allegedly permitting more than 100 intrabank transfers that helped hide the movement of stolen funds.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak went to prison in 2022 after being found guilty of 1MDB-linked corruption and money laundering, though he has denied wrongdoing.
Low, meanwhile, remains at large.
Malaysia's finance ministry said last month it has recovered more than $7 billion in funds linked to 1MDB and its former unit, SRC International, so far.
