美国查扣马来西亚贪腐官员10亿美元资产

The U.S. government moved Wednesday to seize more than $1 billion in assets purchased with money that it believes was stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund by people close to the country’s embattled prime minister.

美国政府于周三采取行动，要求查扣一批价值超过10亿美元的资产。政府认为，一些与丑闻缠身的马来西亚总理关系密切的人士，用窃取自马来西亚一家主权财富基金的钱购买了这些资产。

Hidden in the United States in real estate¹, art and other luxury goods, the money was embezzled² from the fund and moved around the world using secretive shell companies that masked its trail, the Justice Department said.

美国司法部称，钱被人从该基金挪用出来，通过用于掩盖踪迹的秘密空壳公司流向世界各地，以房地产、艺术品以及其他奢侈品的面目隐匿在美国。

The $1 billion that prosecutors³ say was laundered⁴ in the United States is but a portion of the billions that international investigators⁵ suspect was siphoned off by high-level officials at the fund and their associates. The fund — called 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB — is overseen⁶ by the prime minister, Najib Razak.

国际调查人员怀疑该基金的高级别官员及其同伙挪用了数十亿美元资金。检察官提到的这笔在美国被洗白的10亿美元，只是其中一部分。这家基金名为一马发展有限公司(1Malaysia Development Berhad，简称1MDB)，由总理纳吉布·拉扎克(Najib Razak)监管。

“1MDB was ostensibly created to pursue investment and development projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people, primarily relying on the issuance of various debt securities to fund these projects,” the department said in one of its court filings. “However, over the course of an approximately four-year period, between approximately 2009 and at least 2013, multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired⁷ to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB through various means.”

“从表面看，创建1MDB的目的是推动为马来西亚及其人民牟取经济效益的投资和开发项目；实现这一目的的主要途径是提供债券保险，从而为这些项目融资，”美国司法部在一份法庭文件中说。“然而，从2009年前后至少到2013年，在大约4年时间里，许多人——包括一些公务员及其同伙——串通一气，采取欺诈手段，以各种名目从1MDB挪用了数十亿美元。”

The international inquiries⁸ into the sovereign wealth fund began last year after an investigative report in The New York Times. As part of a broader examination of the use of shell companies in high-end real estate in the United States, The Times traced the purchases of about $150 million in residential⁹ properties in New York and in the Los Angeles area, as well as several works of art, to relatives or associates of Najib.

在纽约时报刊发了一篇调查性报道之后，针对该主权财富基金的国际调查于去年启动。时报对相关人员利用空壳公司购买高端房地产的情况进行了广泛调查，发现纳吉布的亲属和同伙耗资约1.5亿美元在纽约和洛杉矶地区购买了住宅房产，以及一些艺术品。

The Justice Department named three of those people in its filings. One, Riza Aziz, is the stepson of Najib and a Hollywood producer of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Another, a financier named Jho Low, is a longtime friend of Aziz. The third is Mohamed Badawy al-Husseiny, a former official at a government fund in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, that participated in deals with Malaysia’s fund.

司法部在文件中提及了其中三人的名字。包括纳吉布的继子、好莱坞制片人里扎·阿齐兹(Riza Aziz)，出品过《华尔街之狼》(The Wolf of Wall Street)；阿齐兹的老友、金融家刘特佐(Jho Low)；第三位名叫穆罕默德·巴达维·侯赛尼(Mohamed Badawy al-Husseiny)，曾是阿联酋阿布扎比一家与1MDB有过业务往来的政府基金的官员。

The complaint described lavish¹⁰ spending by the people said to be involved in the theft of funds. From October 2009 to June 2010, it said, more than $85 million was spent on gambling¹¹ in Las Vegas, jet rentals¹², luxury yachts and payments to other individuals.

据起诉书描述，那些据称参与了资金挪用的人出手极其阔绰。起诉书称，从2009年10月至2010年6月，他们在拉斯维加斯豪赌，租用飞机，购买豪华游艇，或者付钱给其他个人，总共用掉了8500万美元。