Andre Marty, spokesman for the OAG in Switzerland, confirmed this, saying, “In the ongoing criminal proceeding of the OAG, Mr Najib Razak is not one of the public officials under accusation.”

Under Swiss law, Andre clarified, reference to “persons unknown” is made in a criminal investigations where there is suspicion of an offence committed and the perpetrator(s) have yet to be identified.

Earlier, Switzerland’s Attorney-General (AG) announced “criminal proceedings opened on August 14, 2015 against two former officials of the Malaysian state-owned fund 1MDB and persons unknown.” Late last month, the OAG issued a request for Malaysia’s assistance into its investigation on stolen funds from 1MDB.

This prompted speculation that Najib was a suspect in the Swiss AG’s probe, given the timing of the foreign request on January 29, several days after Malaysian AG, Mohd Apandi Ali, cleared the prime minister of all wrongdoing in the case of a RM2.6 billion donation and RM42 million from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

On February 1, the London-based Financial Times reported that the Swiss AG alleged “criminal conduct” in four cases involving 1MDB, in a period spanning from 2009 to 2013, although none involved Najib himself as a suspect.

The cases were related to five companies namely PetroSaudi; SRC International; Genting; Tanjong; and ADMIC, a joint venture between 1MDB and Aabar Investments, which is controlled by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company.

In a Reuters news report yesterday, Singaporean authorities were quoted as saying they had seized “a large number of” bank accounts in their investigations on possible money laundering linked to 1MDB.

However 1MDB issued a statement they had yet to be contacted by Singaporean authorities regarding the case.

Related story: Swiss derail Msia’s attempt to downplay 1MDB fiasco