The 1MDB taskforce and the MACC today met with Singapore authorities to discuss ways in which money believed to be embezzled from the beleaguered state investment fund could be returned to the Malaysian government.

In a statement, the task force said all parties agreed to cooperate to collate the necessary evidence and on the speedy detection of relevant witnesses from Singapore that could aid investigations.

"Besides that, the team would also outline a money trail so as to trace any money or assets that still exist," a statement from the taskforce read.

The meeting today was attended by nine senior officers from Singapore's 1MDB taskforce comprising representatives from their Attorney-General's Chambers, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The Malaysian side comprised members of its 1MDB taskforce which represented the Attorney-General's Chambers, the Royal Malaysian Police, MACC and Bank Negara.

The Malaysian 1MDB task force is jointly headed by former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, former MACC head Abu Kassim Mohamed, current MACC head Mohd Shukri Abdull and former police Special Branch head Abdul Hamid Bador.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report stated that Singaporean authorities came at the behest of their counterparts here.

"Our Malaysian counterparts requested for our assistance in relation to their 1MDB-related investigations, and we agreed to the meeting in Kuala Lumpur," a Singapore police spokesperson was quoted saying.

This meeting comes just one week after the Malaysian task force met with officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ had, last year, filed 30 civil forfeiture suits pertaining to 1MDB-linked assets and among others, the US$620 million “donation” made to the personal account of a Malaysian Official 1 ("MO1"), allegedly by a member of the Saudi royal family.

Handbags, cash

"MO1" was described by the DOJ as a high-ranking government official and was later confirmed by the then minister in the prime minister's department Abdul Rahman Dahlan to be former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

Even so, the new Pakatan Harapan government has begun an intensive multi-faceted probe against Najib and 1MDB following BN's loss in the general election a few weeks ago.

Police have so far seized hundreds of boxes containing luxury designer handbags and cash (above) amounting to more than RM114 million during searches of properties linked to the former premier.

Najib and other figures linked to the scandal have been summoned by the MACC to give their statements while new Finance Minister has made several revelations in regards to spending related to 1MDB.

This, among others, included the claim that the previous BN-led government had spent some RM7 billion to bail out the troubled fund.

Besides the Americans, investigations into 1MDB said to be the biggest case of kleptocracy in history, is being carried out by Singapore and Switzerland.

Singapore's CAD and MAS began their probe into the fund in 2015, freezing a large number of bank accounts in the process.

Meanwhile, Swiss investigators have indicated that some US$4 billion (RM16.6 billion) had been misappropriated from 1MDB and they had requested help from the then-Malaysian government for its investigation which was refused.