KUALA LUMPUR: Scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad said on Monday it has filed a legal claim of more than $1 billion against corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO, alleging the firm knowingly facilitated over $7 billion in fraudulent transactions.

The claim was filed in the British Virgin Islands against eight Amicorp entities and its Chief Executive Officer Toine Knipping, alleging that they played a vital role in enabling the sovereign wealth fund to be defrauded between 2009 and 2014, 1MDB said in a statement.

Amicorp Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Malaysian and US investigators had previously estimated $4.5 billion was siphoned away from 1MDB following its inception in 2009, implicating former Prime Minister Najib Razak, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) staff and high-level officials elsewhere.

Najib is currently in prison but has denied wrongdoing. 1MDB allege 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.

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Stolen funds were purportedly routed through Singapore, Barbados, Curacao, Hong Kong, and the British Virgin Islands, 1MDB said.

“There is, in our view, strong evidence to suggest that Amicorp – at the highest levels – knew they were involved in a dishonest and illegal money laundering scheme designed to transfer large sums of cash away from its intended beneficiary - the people of Malaysia,” a spokesperson for 1MDB said in the statement.