1MDB contended that US$248 million of its monies were embezzled to fund the movie production of Riza Abdul Aziz, who is the stepson of ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak.

The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s opening statement, in its lawsuit to recover the money, also claimed that the funds were used for personal expenses such as gambling and real estate.

Before the Kuala Lumpur High Court, 1MDB and its three subsidiaries claimed that its monies were siphoned out through “various artifices, devious devices and plain old deceit...