KUALA LUMPUR (April 30): Former Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim has revealed that his appointed lawyer in Sydney has agreed to sue ANZ Bank to recover RM2.6 billion, which he alleges was siphoned from 1MDB.

“If successful, I would use the compensation for activities that would enable the people to think in a rational manner.

“Elections are only useful when the people think instead of dreaming,” he said in a Twitter post today.

On April 23, Zaid had written in his blog that he was in Sydney the week before to instruct Levitt Robinson Solicitors to explore the possibility of suing ANZ Bank in Australia to recover the RM2.6 billion that was allegedly stolen from 1MDB.

"ANZ, an Australian entity, was managing AmBank at the material time and is still a shareholder of AmBank in Malaysia. I believe ANZ was responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the laundering of money that belongs to the people of this country. This is my last bit of contribution before May 9th 2018.

"I still have to overcome the locus standi hurdle in Australia but I believe the country’s laws are wider in scope, and as a result its courts have allowed those with special interests to litigate. Australian courts will not tolerate illegality of any shape or form by its corporations, even if the deed was carried out outside of Australia. This puts me in good stead.

"I am hopeful that Stewart Levitt will take my case, and act on behalf of Malaysians who have been deprived of the benefits that 1MDB would have brought them if it had been managed properly and no funds had been stolen.

"I want the case to be placed before the Australian court with the commitment that, should any funds be awarded by way of damages from ANZ Bank, the court will supervise its use wholly and exclusively for the benefit of Malaysia’s poor. This would include providing better education, more scholarships and better social services, the very ones 1MDB was meant to finance."

He added: "I tried to get AmBank to disclose the statement of accounts where money from 1MDB was remitted to, so that we could establish if it went to the Prime Minister’s account or whether the money came from a Saudi prince. But they all said that I had no locus standi as I was not a shareholder or a Director of 1MDB."