Malaysia has frozen hundreds of bank accounts believed linked to sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, officials said Monday, as they stepped up an anti-graft probe that could engulf former prime minister Najib Razak.
A special government task force investigating a corruption scandal involving 1MDB said it froze 408 bank accounts containing a total 1.1 billion ringgit ($272 million) last week.
"The accounts are believed to be connected with the misappropriation and misuse of 1MDB funds," the task force said in a statement.
"They involved nearly 900 transactions made between March 2011 and September 2015."
The funds in the frozen accounts came from individuals, political parties and non-government organisations, it said without mentioning names.
However, the task force's statement followed local media reports last week that accounts belonging Najib's political party, the once-powerful United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), had been frozen.