GENEVA: Swiss authorities said Thursday they had frozen tens of millions of dollars in assets as part of an investigation into Malaysia’s troubled state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The Swiss attorney general’s office further confirmed that criminal proceedings had been opened against two executives of the fund, which has been at the center of mounting anger over Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s tenure.

Allegations have circulated for months in Malaysia that huge sums had vanished in deals with heavily-indebted 1MDB, which Najib launched in 2009.

“The Office of The Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has frozen assets amounting several tens of millions of US-dollars on Swiss bank accounts,” spokeswoman Anna Wegelin told AFP in an e-mail.

She further explained that the criminal probes targeting the two unnamed executives related to money laundering and “suspected misconduct in public office.”