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The subsidiary of an Abu Dhabi company linked to a global money laundering investigation put up most of the funding for Extell’s ONE57 tower.
Extell’s Gary Barnett began construction on One57 in the depths of the recession when Western funding was tight, and turned to Aabar Investments and Tasameem Real Estate Co for financing, the New York Post reports.
“Gary Barnett used this Abu Dhabi connection to bail him out,” a source told the Post.
Aabar is a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Co, which has strong ties to a state-owned Malaysian investment fund at the heart of a massive corruption scandal.
The fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, has $6.5B in bonds guaranteed by IPIC. 1MDB came under investigation after more than $1B of its funds allegedly found their way into personal bank accounts belonging to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. He has denied any wrongdoing.
A DoJ probe into 1MDB could spill over into real estate financing deals like those for One57, that were funded by entities with ties to 1MDB, a source tells the Post.
The news comes at the same time authorities are looking closely at investment properties bought in New York and other major cities as a way to launder money. [NYP]
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