Swizz Beatz Can’t Escape $7.3 Million 1MDB Fraud Case

Photo Credit: Swizz Beatz for Reebok USA / CC by 4.0

A federal judge denies producer Swizz Beatz’s motion to dismiss his status as a defendant in a bankruptcy case related to the 1MDB scandal.

The case against music producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean will now proceed to the discovery portion of the proceedings, after a federal judge has ruled that Dean must remain a defendant in a bankruptcy case related to the high-profile 1MDB scandal.

In February, Dean filed a motion to dismiss himself and two of his companies (Monza Studio and Swizz Beatz Productions) as defendants in the case. The initial case was filed against Dean and his two companies last October in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Dean’s motion to dismiss asserts there is “a lack of standing to bring the asserted claims,” that the alleged charges exceed the statute of limitations, and that plaintiffs have not “pleaded enough facts to state the claim in their suit.” The motion also requests dismissal with prejudice, meaning the suit could not be refiled.

But on September 26, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald issued a ruling denying the motion to dismiss and stating that the plaintiffs’ claims are “not time-barred.” Further, the judge asserts that the plaintiffs have sufficient standing to bring their claims, and that “the Court has subject-matter jurisdiction to hear them.”

The plaintiffs in the case are Angela Barkhouse and Toni Shukla, serving as joint liquidators for four companies listed as “Insolvent Entities” in the ruling. Their suit alleges two counts of fraudulent conveyance and one count of unjust enrichment.

According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, Dean was a friend of Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the “now-infamous $7.65 billion fraud” against the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. The plaintiffs seek to recoup $7.3 million that was transferred to Affinity Equity International Partners Limited and Alsen Chance Holdings Limited, two companies that once belonged to Low and Dean.

“The alleged fraudulent transfers in this case concern a small portion of the transactions comprising the larger 1MDB Fraud,” the judge’s ruling continues, adding that the current suit does not allege that Dean was a participant in the 1MDB fraud beyond “his alleged receipt of fraudulently obtained funds.”

However, the funds in question that were allegedly earmarked for the 1MDB to purchase a power production company and acquire energy-related assets never made their way to their intended destinations. Some of these funds allegedly ended up with Dean and his companies via various shell companies at the direction of Low or his associates, the filing claims.

The judge’s ruling also reveals that Dean was the owner of a work that the U.S. Department of Justice recovered previously as part of the 1MDB investigation, Andy Warhole’s “Round Jackie,” which Low allegedly gifted to Dean in 2014.

Dean handed over the work in 2020, and in 2024, the DOJ recovered several other works related to the 1MDB. These included a Warhol and Monet from Low, as well as a Picasso from 1MDB’s former general counsel. U.S. Marshals conducted an auction of a number of works earlier this month related to the 1MDB scandal, which brought in $36 million.