DBS sued for US$1bil by liquidators of 1MDB-linked firms

 The Singapore banking group rejects the claim and says it will fight it 'vigorously'.

Shares of DBS closed 0.8% lower at S$77.50 earlier in the day. (DBS pic)

SINGAPORE:

DBS Bank is being sued for an estimated S$1.298 billion (US$1.03 billion) in damages linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, Southeast Asia’s largest lender, DBS Group, said on Wednesday.

The claimants include the liquidators of four companies – BlackRock Commodities (Global), Platinum Global Luxury Services, Affinity Equity International Partners, and TKIL Global Investments.

The liquidators did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

DBS rejected the claim and said it would fight it vigorously, adding that the company has made no provision for the lawsuit. The bank did not provide any more details on the allegations it faces.

The lawsuit is the latest among wide-ranging efforts to recover money belonging to 1MDB, from which US investigators say about US$4.5 billion was stolen between 2009 and 2014 in a complex, globe-spanning scheme.

All this time, there was no claim against DBS, according to the lender’s statement.

In July last year, liquidators trying to recover money from 1MDB sued Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, alleging that it enabled fraud that led to more than US$2.7 billion in financial losses between 2009 and 2013.

Shares of DBS closed 0.8% lower at S$77.50 earlier in the day. - FMT