The state-run Malaysian fund embroiled in a scandal around illicit money transfers may be shut down, while investigations about the matter have spread to Australia.

The Malaysian government is reportedly making preparations to close 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the state-owned investment fund embroiled in a worldwide money laundering probe that has recently seen multiple indictments, bank closures and jail sentences handed to former affiliated bankers.

Under a plan spearheaded by a prominent government unit called the Budiman committee, the assets of 1MDB will be transferred in the coming months to two companies owned by the Finance Ministry, according to media reports citing an anonymous senior government official familiar with the matter.

The assets in question are two large plots of land in Kuala Lumpur and one on Penang island.

The fund, which at one point had debts totalling $12 billion, last November sold off its other main asset – power plants grouped under Edra Energy – to a Chinese company for $3.8 billion.

The three plots of land will be transferred to Piramid Pertama and Aroma Teraju, according to government officials and lawyers involved in 1MDB’s debt workout and cited by the Straits Times.

“The resolution of 1MDB’s debt obligations will be carried out separately by the government,” a senior government official familiar with the exercise reportedly told the Straits Times.

1MDB is the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the US. The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak – who was accused of funnelling $1 billion through his bank account - has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said his country will cooperate with international investigations into the fund, the current debt load of which is estimated at $4.8 billion.

Meanwhile, other news services have reported that fresh investigations into the fund are underway in Australia, as federal police officers are reportedly assisting one of three financial watchdogs – the Swiss, the US and the Singaporean – with enquiries into the fate of $3.5 billion allegedly looted from 1MDB. Switzerland, for example, has stated that it has frozen accounts linked to the fund.

Najib has claimed that a vast amount of money that flowed through his bank account at AmBank, a Malaysian associate of Australia’s ANZ, was a donation from a Saudi prince.

An Australian Federal Police spokesperson reportedly said the force was “evaluating” whether any Australian citizens, residents or companies had breached proceeds-of-crime laws.

“The AFP is assisting foreign law-enforcement partners in their investigations,” she reportedly said. “Given this matter is the subject of evaluation, it is not appropriate to comment further.”

In October last year, Falcon Private Bank and BSI were both forced to shut their operations in Singapore amid the city-state’s biggest crackdown on alleged money laundering connected to 1MDB.

In recent developments, five former employees of the banks have been charged and handed jail sentences over their connections to the fund. Yeo Jiawei, a former BSI private banker who was handed the longest sentence to date, last week was reported to be planning an appeal of his conviction of a 30-month jail term.