BELLINZONA, Switzerland, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The Swiss

Federal Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted two executives at

an oil exploration company accused of embezzling over $1.8

billion from Malaysia's state investment fund 1MDB.

The verdict was the latest episode in the 1MDB scandal, a

complex tale of international corruption that has buffeted a

slew of financial institutions and individuals across the globe

since allegations of wrongdoing first surfaced in 2015.

Prosecutors alleged that Swiss-British national Patrick

Mahony and Swiss-Saudi Tarek Obaid, helped to set up a joint

venture with 1MDB by creating the impression that their company,

PetroSaudi, was backed by the Saudi government.

This was not, in fact, the case, but the accused managed to

persuade 1MDB's board into signing up to the scheme in 2009

before going on to defraud the fund, prosecutors said.