Legal authorities from Switzerland and Malaysia have met to discuss how to co-operate in the investigation of a huge Malay corruption scandal that has led the Alpine state to freeze various accounts.

Swiss legal authorities are probing the alleged rôle of banks in their jurisdiction in connection with a scandal involving Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

On September 15, during the general meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors held in Zurich, a meeting was held between the Swiss and the Malaysian attorneys-general, Michael Lauber and Tan Sri Dato' Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said recently that hundreds of millions of dollars deposited into Najib’s personal accounts were donations and did not come from the Malaysian state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, as had been alleged. Najib has also been strenuous in his assertions that he did nothing wrong.

Despite this, money held in Swiss bank accounts linked to 1MDB has been frozen on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

The fund, which Razak founded, has amassed $11 billion in debt. Controversy over Najib’s involvement with the fund has turned the matter into a major scandal in the former British colony. Some describe it as the largest ever corruption scandal in Malaysia.

In March, the state-run investment organisation said: “The 1Malaysia Development Berhad has received a clean audit report (unqualified) for its audited financial statements for the year 2010-2014 by the Companies Commission of Malaysia.”

In the OAG statement yesterday, it said of the meeting with Malaysian legal officials: “The Swiss authorities have reminded that, in the Swiss system, the investigation has for objective to establish the truth, and that the co-operation of Malaysia is crucial.”

It added: “The Swiss authorities have welcomed the proposition of Malaysia to arrange for key witnesses to be heard by the Swiss investigators after the Malaysian authorities received the respective formal request.”

Bruno Manser Fonds, an organisation campaigning to protect the Malaysian rainforest and its people, has lodged criminal complaints against the Swiss subsidiaries of RBS Coutts, JP Morgan (Suisse) and the Geneva branch of PetroSaudi International for alleged money-laundering and other criminal offences when dealing with 1MDB.

Last January, Swiss prosecutors said they would not look into the matter for a lack of evidence, according to BMF. After leaked documents published by Sarawak Report, a website, substantiated the role of Swiss banks and businesses in the scandal, the Bruno Manser Fund approached the prosecutors and the Swiss bank regulator FINMA again. BMF is also urging Swiss authorities to investigate the legal compliance of the Singapore subsidiaries of Swiss banks Falcon Private Bank and BSI with Swiss banking laws.