Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 1, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Singapore's High Court dismissed a suit by foreign liquidators against Standard Chartered and BSI Bank over the 1MDB scandal, citing legal framework limitations.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore's High Court has dismissed a bid by foreign liquidators to sue Standard Chartered Bank and BSI Bank in Singapore over transactions alleged to be linked to the scandal-hit Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, according to a judgment on Wednesday.
Representatives of the liquidators didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The liquidators had alleged that Standard Chartered enabled fraud leading to more than $2.7 billion in financial losses more than 10 years ago.
U.S. and Malaysian investigators say about $4.5 billion was stolen from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund between 2009 and 2014 in a complex, globe-spanning scheme.
Singapore High Court judge Aidan Xu said the liquidators' suit should be dismissed as Singapore's cross-border insolvency framework could not be applied to the case, given that the alleged transactions took place before the law took effect in 2018.
(Reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; Writing by Danial Azhar in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by David Stanway)
Financial losses refer to the reduction in value of an asset or the loss of money due to various factors, including fraud, poor investments, or economic downturns.
A liquidator is a person or entity appointed to wind up the affairs of a company, selling its assets to pay creditors and distributing any remaining funds to shareholders.
A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in various assets, including stocks, bonds, real estate, and other financial instruments, to generate returns for the country's economy.
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