Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal poses difficult questions for Gulf grandees

Despite efforts to limit information reaching the public domain, ever more questions are being asked about influence-peddling and financial governance as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal that has rocked Malaysia plays itself out. Central to revelations of huge and dubious financial flows and debts accruing to 1MDB are payments channelled through Abu Dhabi and other Gulf-owned institutions, with senior figures from UAE, Qatari and Saudi public life implicated in operations with the deeply damaged Malaysian state investment firm. Recent changes in Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic)’s senior management may be linked to the affair.