As the Malaysian government pursues its efforts to recoup billions lost by 1MDB to fraud, negligence and professional collusion across the globe, there have been concerns over profiteering even from the recovery of the stolen wealth.
One key whistleblower in the affair, Bachar Kiwan, was forced to flee Kuwait in 2017 after reprisals from Jho Low’s allies who were money-laundering Malaysia’s diverted public funds through businesses he jointly owned.
Having suffered torture and imprisonment before making a daring escape, Kiwan approached Sarawak Report with devastating evidence of the scheme, sanctioned at the highest levels in China which collaborated with Jho Low and his ‘Big Boss’ (then prime minister Najib Razak) to cover-up the losses from 1MDB.
Subsequent reporting on this website resulted in the trial and imprisonment in 2023 of Sheikh Sabah Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah, the son of the former Kuwaiti prime minister, who had taken fat commissions for his role, together with his lawyer and key aide.
Bachar Kiwan was himself also sentenced, in absentia alongside Jho Low, having been accused of being part of the conspiracy he exposed. He has always maintained his innocence and was found to be a victim of political persecution by the Spanish courts and the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. He now lives as a free citizen in France.
In the meantime, Kiwan has made clear he believes he holds further evidence about the laundered Kuwaiti funds and has approached the Malaysian authorities in the hope of supplying this information in return for assistance in getting the remaining charges dropped in Kuwait.
Indeed, he told Sarawak Report that he believes his conviction largely owed to misinformation supplied by the Malaysian authorities when they responded to Kuwaiti mutual legal assistance requests in 2022. MACC negotiators have subsequently assured him they are willing to set the record straight.
In April he provided this statement to Sarawak Report with respect to whether his offer of information was dependent on a whistleblower reward and or payment of his legal expenses:
‘To be clear, the bonus or reward has never been my motivation in this cooperation. What matters far more to me is recognition of the truth and compelling the Kuwaiti authorities to restore my dignity and honour – notably through the cancellation of the unjust judgments against me, and a fair resolution regarding my expropriation [the loss of his businesses].
The Malaysian side have made it a clear condition that I must be proven to have received no financial benefit from Jho Low’s original money laundering schemes. If it turns out I did they will no longer treat me as a proper whistleblower, and I am happy with that since I never did benefit, quite the opposite’.
Sudden Dash For Settlement in 2026
Previously, Bachar Kiwan’s offers to provide evidence to Malaysia had proven unproductive. The former MACC Commissioner, Azam Baki, told a press conference in 2023 that a visit to Paris by his officers the previous year to meet with the Kiwan had provided ‘no substantive information‘ on 1MDB’s still missing funds.
That meeting was attended online by the law minister Azalina Othman Said, Azam confirmed. Kiwan claimed in response that his visitors told him there was a lack of appetite at the time in the then AG’s department to pursue a case that would further expose Najib.
This negativity changed, says Kiwan, late last year after a second MACC team revisited him in Paris, again under the auspices of Ms Othman, who remains a minister in the present coalition government.
During these discussions, Kiwan says that it emerged that Kuwait had recently notified Malaysia that it was ready to return a relatively small proportion of the $1.02 billion judged to have been laundered through Sheikh Sabah’s accounts, a still significant sum of KUD15 million (RM200 million) that remained in those accounts.
Kiwan responded with his own research pointing to a far greater sum (KUD 160m/RM 2bn), which he maintains can be traced internationally to Sheikh Sabah’s network of assets funded by 1MDB. He says negotiations were then launched to set terms under which he would cooperate with the MACC in KL.
In early December, a letter confirming a ‘Cooperation Framework And Establishment of International Working Group’ was sent by the MACC to Kiwan’s Paris lawyer. The wording indicated a significant reversal of the commission’s previously dismissive public remarks:
“As agreed, Mr. Bachar Kiwan’s cooperation in interviews, statements, and the provision of any related information regarding the investigation and asset recovery will be crucial to the work of this Group … MACC appreciates your client’s willingness to assist in the recovery of Malaysia’s sovereign assets and looks forward to a constructive and professional engagement.“
It was signed by the MACC Commissioner Azam Baki on December 2nd, just two days after the high level meeting which had been proposed by the MACC at short notice in Paris (involving no fewer than 6 MACC officers sent from KL). At this meeting there had been another unexpected development, according to Bachar Kiwan, involving his representation.
MACC Requests Najib’s Lawyer To Represent Kiwan
Shortly after the meeting began, Kiwan says, the Malaysian officials urged him to replace his existing Malaysian lawyer, whom they claimed was conflicted owing to a client the same firm was defending over separate case that was being prosecuted by the agency.
The MACC team then revealed that they had brought with them a recommended alternative lawyer all the way from KL: the lawyer was waiting just outside. The lawyer, who was then invited to join the meeting, was none other than a member of the former prime minister, Najib Razak’s legal team; namely Tania Scivetti, who is the wife of Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s lead advocate for many years.
Scivetti was accompanied by a gentleman described as a liaison and communications expert with strong ministerial connections: he proceeded to demonstrate this by bringing Azalina Othman onto an immediate video link via his mobile phone.
Presented with this situation Bachar Kiwan agreed to substitute this pair to represent him and later in April 2026 he visited KL where he had extensive meetings with a view to sealing an agreement.
Part of this agreement involved presenting a detailed report on traceable funds, which Kiwan and his lawyer committed to prepare. However, much of the discussion appeared to concern financial arrangements with regard to anticipated reward monies.
Kiwan has told Sarawak Report that Scivetti & Partners had proposed to provide their services in anticipation of payment from a whistleblower fee which the law firm suggested ought to be in the region of 25% of any recovery obtained.
If that seems excessive, Kiwan says that the person who advised him on the matter explained that a lot of people needed ‘looking after’.
Sarawak Report has viewed subsequent proposed terms of engagement received by Bachar Kiwan’s Paris law firm, dated 26th April 2026 on Scivetti & Associates headed paper. The terms include a “Success-Based Fee Structure” stating that:
“Upon payment of any Reward, the Reward shall be distributed [between] Scivetti & Associates, which shall retain forty-five per cent (45%) of the total Reward as its professional fees for the purposes of this engagement; and Mr Kiwan, who shall receive the remaining forty-five per cent (45%) of the total” (with the remaining 10% payable to the Paris law firm).
This document appears to have been signed by ‘Datuk Tania Scivetti’. There was an element of haste involved, he said, not least because there appeared to be money already on the table (the RM200m being offered by Kuwait); moreover rival settlements were being discussed during ongoing negotiations with China which sought to close down further claims against both countries.
Had the deal gone through with the repatriation of RM200 million from Kuwait, in the light of what Kiwan had been told, the law firm might therefore have expected to have received in the region of RM50 million as their ‘success fee’ for representing Mr Kiwan and receiving and distributing the anticipated Reward.
If the further information yet to be delivered by Kiwan was also acted upon and proved solid that amount could have been considerably higher.
However, Kiwan and his legal advisors have told Sarawak Report that by the time they received these proposed terms they had taken wider soundings and lost confidence in the process. In an earlier message Kiwan had expressed his misgivings: “At this stage, we feel that the current working dynamic involving Tania, [and the other officials] is not providing enough clarity or comfort, particularly in terms of governance, accountability and outcome security. There seem to be too many grey areas, and the decision-making centre feels somewhat diluted.”
They never signed the document
Meanwhile, there was increased uncertainty created by the growing public clamour against the planned re-appointment of the Commissioner himself, whose term of office was due to expire shortly in May.
Azam Baki was, in the end, replaced and a re-shuffle then took place within the agency which removed many of those who had been involved in these negotiations from their positions. Yet, at the start of May, Bachar was still being told that the officials concerned were confident of completing the planned retrieval of cash from Kuwait and proposed reward, if he moved more swiftly to to cooperate.
On June 14th Sarawak Report contacted Azalina Othman asking for comment on these negotiations and the decision by the MACC to recommend the law firm Scivetti & Associates to represent Bachar Kiwan on a success fee basis in anticipation of a whistleblower reward. We have received no response.
However, shortly after, Sarawak Report learned that MACC officials were made aware of those enquiries. Less than a week later, on June 19th, Bachar received a sudden ‘termination letter’, from Scivetti & Associates stating they had decided to withdraw from their proposal to engage him as their client.
Sarawak Report has also submitted requests for comment from Azam Baki (both directly and via the MACC) and, likewise, Scivetti & Associates. However, none of the parties we approached have responded since late June.
Bachar Kiwan has told Sarawak Report that he is concerned that Malaysia therefore continues in its failure to pursue what he believes are rightful reclamations from Kuwait where court cases have now demonstrated that multiple parties failed to respond to his early whistleblowing alerts and then continued to investigate the matter in the face of growing evidence.
It took a change of government in the Gulf state and new prosecutors before official reports that proved the levels of corruption were finally acted on.
Following his conviction in March 2023, the Kuwait court fined the Sheikh a hefty KUD 140 million (RM1.85 billion) yet none of this penalty was paid to the injured party, namely Malaysia.
As the whistleblower, Bachar Kiwan believes he too is an injured party. Yet Malaysia, which did so much to damage his position previously, has done nothing to restore his situation in return for his having alerted the international community to Kuwait’s role in the 1MDB mega-theft.
[The full story of Kuwait’s role in the 1MDB cover-up and collusion with China is told in the upcoming book The China Contract, written by the editor of Sarawak Report and due to be published October 15th]