Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pleaded not guilty to three counts of money laundering on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Committee [official website] indicated that Razak would be charged under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 [materials, PDF] on Wednesday.

The charges arise from a scandal involving the the 1 Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) [BBC report], a wholly state-owned development fund. Earlier this year the Malaysian government announced the creation of a special task force [JURIST report] to look into allegations of criminal conduct committed by the fund’s managers. Shortly thereafter, the US Department of Justice [official website] announced [press release] its intentions to recover approximately USD $540 million of the alleged $4.5 billion in funds misappropriated from 1MDB.

Razak was arrested [JURIST report] in July by Malaysian authorities and accused of stealing roughly $700 million from the fund.

Razak created the fund in 2009 and was in charge of the government when the scandal first broke. Razak was defeated this past election by Mahathir Mohamed in an upset snap election on May 10 [BBC report].