In a statement, the finance ministry said Malaysia’s assets recovery trust account has received a total of RM19.138 billion over the financial scandal. The funds will be used to settle outstanding 1MDB debts.

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the government had repaid RM13.3 billion of 1MDB’s debt so far.

“As at Dec 31, 2021, 1MDB’s outstanding debt comprising principal and coupons/profit for bonds and Sukuk, amounted to RM38.81 billion.

“However, the current balance of the trust account is sufficient to pay off only the principal amount of the bonds for 2022,” he said in the statement.

He added once all the trust account funds were utilised, the government would continue to bear the obligation to pay the balance of 1MDB’s debt, whose issuance was backed by government guarantees and letters of support.

It was reported that KPMG had agreed to a RM333 million settlement to resolve claims of alleged negligence and breach of contract in its audit of 1MDB’s financial statements, the finance ministry said.

Tengku Zafrul had said the settlement, which is valued at more than 800 times the audit fees earned by KPMG, represented one of the largest 1MDB-related settlements by an audit firm in Southeast Asia.

It would also conclude the civil suit filed by Putrajaya against the auditor.

On July 6 last year, Putrajaya and 1MDB filed a US$5.64 billion (RM23.63 billion) lawsuit against 44 partners of KPMG Malaysia over alleged negligence and breach of contract in its audit of 1MDB’s financial statements from 2010 to 2012.

The plaintiffs claimed losses over breaches that KPMG’s partners allegedly committed in their role as auditor for 1MDB.

In the statement of claim the plaintiffs said more than US$5.6 billion had been misappropriated from 1MDB, of which US$3.197 billion was misappropriated in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when KPMG was the auditor for 1MDB.

KPMG denied the allegations and vowed to “vigorously” contest the claim.

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