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Amicorp denies knowingly facilitating $7 bln in fraudulent

transactions

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Firm accused of playing role in defrauding Malaysian state

fund

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Amicorp says it has cooperated with Singapore and Swiss

agencies

(Recasts, adds details and background)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Amicorp Group has said

it will dispute a claim for more than $1 billion filed by

scandal-hit Malaysian fund 1MDB, denying allegations it

knowingly facilitated more than $7 billion in fraudulent

transactions related to the misappropriation of 1MDB funds.

Corporate services provider Amicorp in a statement late on

Monday said it would defend itself and challenge the effort by

sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which filed

a legal claim last week in the British Virgin Islands.

1MDB has alleged Hong Kong-headquartered Amicorp and its CEO

played a vital role in enabling the Malaysian fund to be

defrauded between 2009 and 2014. The claim is one of the biggest

filed by 1MDB related to the multibillion dollar graft scandal.

Malaysian and U.S. investigators have previously estimated

$4.5 billion was siphoned away from 1MDB in a complex,

globe-spanning scheme that implicated former Malaysian Prime

Minister Najib Razak, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) staff and high-level

officials elsewhere.

1MDB alleges Amicorp created and managed a complex

conspiracy consisting of layers of shell companies, sham

transactions, and fraudulent financial structures that obscured

the true origin and destination of the funds.

But Amicorp said the misappropriated 1MDB funds were

"ill-gotten by or for the benefit" of Malaysian senior

government officials and the top senior management of Abu

Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co and its unit Aabar

Investments PJS.

The two UAE firms agreed in 2023 to pay $1.8 billion to

Malaysia to settle a legal dispute over the 1MDB scandal.

Najib, who helped found 1MDB in 2009, is currently in

prison for corruption and money laundering for receiving about

$10 million from former 1MDB unit SRC International and has

consistently denied wrongdoing.

Najib's 12-year prison sentence was later halved by a

pardons board chaired by Malaysia's former king, but he faces

several other graft trials related to 1MDB.

Amicorp said it has not been the subject of any

administrative investigations or party to any civil suits, and

has cooperated with Singapore and Swiss government agencies and

criminal prosecutors based on "mutual assistance" in criminal

matters. It did not provide further details.