Singapore High Court dismisses Standard Chartered’s appeal to strike out US$2.7 billion 1MDB-linked lawsuit

THE High Court has dismissed Standard Chartered Bank’s (StanChart) appeal to strike out a lawsuit tied to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

The ruling, handed down on Tuesday (Jun 30), upholds a November 2025 decision by the High Court that rejected the bank’s application to strike out the action.

With the appeal dismissed, the lawsuit should proceed to trial “where the evidence can be fully examined”, said the claimants’ foreign liquidators in a statement on Wednesday.

Court-appointed liquidators commenced the lawsuit against StanChart on Jun 30, 2025, on behalf of the claimants Alsen Chance Holdings, Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners and Brightstone Jewellery. The bank subsequently filed an application with the High Court to strike out the action.

The claims alleged that between 2009 and 2013, StanChart permitted more than 100 intra-bank transfers that helped to conceal the flow of stolen funds and overlooked obvious red flags relating to the transfer of funds.

In permitting and facilitating these transactions, StanChart is alleged to have failed to comply with Singapore’s anti-money laundering regulations and client due-diligence rules, said the liquidators.

Through such transfers, the claimants alleged they had lost more than US$2.7 billion and S$20 million in public funds.

The transactions cited in the claims included US$150 million transferred from an account held by Blackstone directly to the personal bank account of Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia.

The other examples were sums of US$4.7 million transferred from the same Blackstone account, US$53.4 million from an account held by Alsen Chance, and US$77.02 million from an account held by Brightstone to jewellery, watch and bag vendors for luxury goods purchases made by Rosmah Mansor, Najib’s wife.

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A spokesperson for StanChart said that the bank will continue to “vigorously defend” against the claims, and that the decision in the strike-out appeal is not a verdict on the merits of those claims.

“In any case, we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision, and intend to apply for permission to file a further appeal,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson also said that the claims were brought by shell companies that misappropriated funds from 1MDB and had no legitimate businesses. “We emphatically reject the claims of these fraudulent entities. Their claims are without merit.” The spokesperson added: “We take our responsibility to fight financial crime extremely seriously, in service of our clients and the markets in which we operate.”

The liquidators said that they remained resolute in their commitment to recover the assets misappropriated from the companies, and to hold accountable those responsible for facilitating the misappropriation of the assets as part of the wider fraud involving 1MDB. The liquidators “welcome the dismissal of the bank’s appeal as a positive step forward for their recovery efforts which are ultimately for the benefit of the people of Malaysia”.

The claimants are represented by Senior Counsel Lok Vi Ming, Joseph Lee, Mohd Haireez, Tan Kah Wai, and Koo Jin Rong of LVM Law Chambers. Lim Chee Wee Partnership of Kuala Lumpur acts as global coordinating counsel for all 1MDB-related asset recovery efforts in Malaysia and abroad.

The liquidators of the claimants are Angela Barkhouse and Toni Shukla, both of Kroll.