SINGAPORE: Singapore investigators are in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to help authorities with an investigation into scandal-plagued state fund 1MDB, Singapore police said on Thursday, as the country’s new government steps up efforts to tackle graft.
At least six countries, including the United States and Switzerland, are investigating claims that $4.5 billion was siphoned out of the fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, founded by former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“Our Malaysian counterparts have requested for our assistance in relation to their 1MDB-related investigations, and we agreed to a meeting in Kuala Lumpur,” a Singapore police spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.
She gave no details of the assistance sought.
The news comes a week after Malaysian officials met officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which refers to Najib as “Malaysian Official Number 1” in an anti-kleptocracy investigation of 1MDB.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing and said in 2016 that the Malaysian government would cooperate with US investigations.
Singapore has taken action against several banks and bank officials for failures of money-laundering controls over transactions related to 1MDB, including the closure of units of BSI Bank and Falcon Bank.
Malaysia’s newly-elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has vowed to investigate the 1MDB scandal and act against those who may have abetted, or benefited from, corruption at the fund.
Mahathir, who defeated Najib, a former protégé turned political opponent, in the historic May 9 elections, immediately reopened 1MDB investigations and barred the former leader from leaving the country.
The former prime minister went to Malaysia’s anti-graft agency to give a statement explaining what he knew about $10.6 million transferred into his bank account from the fund.
Last week, Malaysia’s finance minister said funds from deals with the central bank and sovereign wealth fund Khazanah were used by the previous government to meet some liabilities of the troubled state fund.
Malaysian police said they seized cash worth 114 million ringgits ($29 million) and more than 400 luxury handbags from Najib’s home and his son’s apartments as part of the investigation.
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Singapore, Malaysia authorities meet as 1MDB probe intensifies
Singapore, Malaysia authorities meet as 1MDB probe intensifies
Denmark and Greenland play it cool to chill Trump
COPENHAGEN: After weathering Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take control of Greenland, Copenhagen and Nuuk want to restore a bit of calm ahead of the Danish general election this month, observers say.
“The tensions were very high in January with arguments flying... There needed to be some kind of de-escalation,” Astrid Andersen, a historian at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), told AFP.
The war of words over the territory, which Trump has said that the United States needs for its “national security,” has eased somewhat.
Denmark and Greenland hope that a NATO mission to bump up defense cooperation to counter Russia and China influence in the Arctic, as well as a diplomatic working group taking in Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen, might take some of the sting out of the issue.
“The meetings on a diplomatic level take the temperature a notch down. And so the strategy now seems to be to keep it there and try to avoid arguing through the media and social media,” Andersen said.
Yet US interest in the vast Arctic territory has not waned, and the red line on the Greenlandic — and Danish — side remains the same: any transfer of sovereignty is off the table.
President Trump’s recent proposal to send a US hospital ship to Greenland to help make up for shortcomings in the local health system was met with a firm rejection, but did not seem to deteriorate the situation.
“The Danish government will do everything it can to keep things calm,” polar geopolitics researcher Mikaa Mered said.
Denmark goes to the polls on March 24, with Greenlanders electing two MPs to the Danish parliament.
The Arctic island, a Danish colony for three centuries, still has a complicated relationship with Copenhagen, which now rules it as an autonomous territory.
While disagreeing on how to get there, Greenland’s main political parties all want independence, but in the face of pressure from Trump, Greenland and Denmark have presented a united front.
“This is the first time there has been such close cooperation between Copenhagen and Nuuk,” said Julie Rademacher, chair of the National Organization for Greenlanders in Denmark.
“We have to start our reconciliation process today,” Rademacher said, even if she conceded there was a risk that scars from the past would be exploited by the Trump administration.
Greenlandic politician Aqqaluk Lynge, founder of the Greenlandic left-wing party Inuit Ataqatigiit, believes that Copenhagen and Nuuk need to exercise caution.
“We have to be very careful about everything,” he said.
The former minister advocates stronger ties with Copenhagen, fearing that Trump will co-opt Greenland’s dreams of independence.
“He will use everything,” he said. “We must make sure these elections are not influenced by the United States.”
- Thorny issues on hold -
In Nuuk, civil society is treading carefully, afraid that their words will be appropriated by Washington.
This has led to some sensitive issues being put to the side — at least temporarily.
One of the most contentious is the campaign of forced contraception imposed on young Greenlandic women by Danish authorities from the late 1960s to 1991.
Denmark issued a formal apology in the summer of 2025 and promised compensation to the victims.
A report examining the legal implications of the human rights violations — especially whether they can be classified as genocide — was submitted to the Greenlandic government in early February but has not yet been made public.
“If the conclusion points to genocide, then it’s bound to create some new waves,” Andersen said.
“The governments will have to deal with that, and the Trump administration will most likely try to use that too,” she added.
A highly-choreographed Greenland visit last month by Denmark’s King Frederik X helped project the image of a united Kingdom of Denmark, which consists of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
“Part of his visit was of course also meant to create nice counter-images to the US... Images of the king being welcomed in Greenland that are meant to demonstrate that the relations with Denmark are strong and positive,” Andersen said.
“The tensions were very high in January with arguments flying... There needed to be some kind of de-escalation,” Astrid Andersen, a historian at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), told AFP.
The war of words over the territory, which Trump has said that the United States needs for its “national security,” has eased somewhat.
Denmark and Greenland hope that a NATO mission to bump up defense cooperation to counter Russia and China influence in the Arctic, as well as a diplomatic working group taking in Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen, might take some of the sting out of the issue.
“The meetings on a diplomatic level take the temperature a notch down. And so the strategy now seems to be to keep it there and try to avoid arguing through the media and social media,” Andersen said.
Yet US interest in the vast Arctic territory has not waned, and the red line on the Greenlandic — and Danish — side remains the same: any transfer of sovereignty is off the table.
President Trump’s recent proposal to send a US hospital ship to Greenland to help make up for shortcomings in the local health system was met with a firm rejection, but did not seem to deteriorate the situation.
“The Danish government will do everything it can to keep things calm,” polar geopolitics researcher Mikaa Mered said.
Denmark goes to the polls on March 24, with Greenlanders electing two MPs to the Danish parliament.
The Arctic island, a Danish colony for three centuries, still has a complicated relationship with Copenhagen, which now rules it as an autonomous territory.
While disagreeing on how to get there, Greenland’s main political parties all want independence, but in the face of pressure from Trump, Greenland and Denmark have presented a united front.
“This is the first time there has been such close cooperation between Copenhagen and Nuuk,” said Julie Rademacher, chair of the National Organization for Greenlanders in Denmark.
“We have to start our reconciliation process today,” Rademacher said, even if she conceded there was a risk that scars from the past would be exploited by the Trump administration.
Greenlandic politician Aqqaluk Lynge, founder of the Greenlandic left-wing party Inuit Ataqatigiit, believes that Copenhagen and Nuuk need to exercise caution.
“We have to be very careful about everything,” he said.
The former minister advocates stronger ties with Copenhagen, fearing that Trump will co-opt Greenland’s dreams of independence.
“He will use everything,” he said. “We must make sure these elections are not influenced by the United States.”
- Thorny issues on hold -
In Nuuk, civil society is treading carefully, afraid that their words will be appropriated by Washington.
This has led to some sensitive issues being put to the side — at least temporarily.
One of the most contentious is the campaign of forced contraception imposed on young Greenlandic women by Danish authorities from the late 1960s to 1991.
Denmark issued a formal apology in the summer of 2025 and promised compensation to the victims.
A report examining the legal implications of the human rights violations — especially whether they can be classified as genocide — was submitted to the Greenlandic government in early February but has not yet been made public.
“If the conclusion points to genocide, then it’s bound to create some new waves,” Andersen said.
“The governments will have to deal with that, and the Trump administration will most likely try to use that too,” she added.
A highly-choreographed Greenland visit last month by Denmark’s King Frederik X helped project the image of a united Kingdom of Denmark, which consists of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
“Part of his visit was of course also meant to create nice counter-images to the US... Images of the king being welcomed in Greenland that are meant to demonstrate that the relations with Denmark are strong and positive,” Andersen said.
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