The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has expressed gratitude for winning accolades at last night's Society of Publishers in Asia (Sopa) Awards 2016.

"It is very gratifying to have our work on 1MDB and Malaysia recognised by our peers and the award's judges.

"It (1MDB) is a major story for us that we will continue to report on in the public interest," the US daily's Asian economics editor Tom Wright told Malaysiakini in an email.

The business publication was the Group A winner for the Scoop Award, for its report ‘Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal’ that started the ball rolling on global investigations into the state investment fund as well as worldwide media coverage of the matter.

WSJ also received honourable mention for the same article in the Excellence in Investigative Reporting Award. The category honours reports that expose corruption or abuses and hold power to account.

Wright was also honoured by Sopa as the Journalist of the Year.

He was one of the WSJ journalists instrumental in the 1MDB expose and the series of articles that followed.

Previously the WSJ was a finalist in the International Reporting Category of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, which honours outstanding American journalism, for its 1MDB expose.