Will the public release of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB lead inevitably to Najib’s departure as Prime Minister and UMNO President?

The whistleblower site Sarawak Report today made  a third consecutive-day revelation about the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB, which had been “conditionally” presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and was the basis of the PAC Report on 1MDB, but which was not presented to Parliament when the PAC Report on 1MDB was tabled in Parliament on April 7,  on the ground that it was  still  classified under the  Official Secrets Act (OSA).

There have been two  official responses so far to Sarawak Report’s exposes of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB –  the call for investigations by the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak for breach of the OSA on the ridiculous ground that the AG’s Report on 1MDB is  classified for the purpose of “national security” and the confirmation by the Deputy Home Minister and former PAC Chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad that police are probing the Sarawak Report leak of the AG’s Report.

As DAP MP for PJ Utara and PAC Member, Tony Pua pointed out, the right thing to do at the moment is for the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB to be declassified and made public immediately, instead of allowing  the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his administration to suffer the global attrition of what is left of its credibility and integrity not only among Malaysians but also internationally with the continued expose of the Auditor-General’s Report on the 1MDB about 1MDB’s global  embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption.

The OSA classification of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB went against the very spirit and intent of Najib’s directive in  March 2015 to the Auditor-General to investigate 1MDB and submit its report to the PAC, and that the AG’s and PAC’s 1MDB Reports were meant to be final and conclusive measures in laying to rest all doubts about the 1MDB.

The very opposite has occurred – with the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB classified for fear that its publication would stir  a hornets’ nest about 1MDB global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption!

The question Najib and all Cabinet Ministers  have to answer is whether the public release of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB will lead inevitably to Najib’s departure as Prime Minister and UMNO President?

Is this the reason why Najib is fighting tooth and nail to suppress the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB?

In fact, had the Auditor-General’s  Report on the 1MDB ever been presented to the Cabinet and studied by the Ministers?

If so, what was the Cabinet’s stand on it?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 9 July 2016, 3:55 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Salleh Keruak cannot be more  wrong: Sarawak Report has not misled public on 1MDB audit findings unless he is  challenging the veracity and integrity of the AG’s findings

The Minister for Multimedia and Communications, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak cannot be more wrong when he accused the whistleblower site Sarawak Report of misleading the public on the auditor-general’s report on 1MDB unless he is also challenging the veracity and integrity of the Auditor-General’s findings.

It is significant that Salleh is not suggesting that Sarawak Report had presented a false, fraudulent or fictitious account of the AG’s Report on 1MDB.

This means that Salleh accepts that the Sarawak Report’s leaks are based on the  true and genuine version of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB.

Can Salleh state what are the findings in the AG’s Report  which he or the Najib administration is rejecting or is he impying that he does not question the veracity and integrity of the AG’s findings on 1MDB but does not want the AG’s Report to be made public and that it should  continue to be classified under the Official Secrets Act because it would be too incriminating for the Prime Minister?

This is a most ludicrous and untenable position and shows that the Najib government has a lot of things to hide, and revives my question yesterday, whether the AG’s Report on 1MDB is kept under wraps because its publication would lead to Najib’s downfall as Prime Minister and UMNO President, as he would have lost all credibility and qualifications to continue as the country’s Prime Minister and President of UMNO?

Salleh said that the AG’s findings were only one component which made up the final report on 1MDB, which was done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and “not the final report on 1MDB”.

DAP MP for PJ Utara and PAC member, Tony Pua, has shot into smithereens this claim by Salleh, when Pua  said in his statement today that the AG’s Report wasn’t merely “one aspect” of 1MDB but “an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB, without which the PAC Report would be incomplete”.

Pua said: “The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its proceedings, relies almost entirely on the findings of the AG Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations.  In fact, the PAC members understood that the AG’s Report was to be presented together with  the PAC Report to provide a complete picture with detailed facts and figures to the Parliament.

“Hence The PAC Report itself made extensive references to the findings AG’s Report without citing the details for the simple reason that the PAC was expecting the AG’s Report to be published together with the PAC Report.”

Pua added:

“Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak must also accept the fact that there was nothing in the PAC Report which contradicted or negated the findings of the AG’s Report.  In fact, PAC members from the government backbench and opposition concurred fully with the AG’s Report and never at any point of time, as recorded in the PAC Hansard, disagreed or rejected the findings.

“Hence all the findings in the AG’s Report must be deemed factual and dealt with accordingly by the authorities.  The question of the AG’s Report being ‘incomplete’ does not arise at all.”

Would the PAC Chairman  Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin or any PAC member dispute Pua’s assertions  that firstly,  the AG’s Report on 1MDB was meant to be  “an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB, without which the PAC Report would be incomplete”; secondly, that the PAC  in its proceedings, relied almost entirely on the findings of the AG’s Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations; and thirdly, that PAC members  from the government backbench and opposition concurred fully with the AG’s Report and never at any point of time, as recorded in the PAC Hansard, disagreed or rejected the findings?

Salleh is also wrong in asserting that the PAC Report on 1MDB is the complete, final and conclusive report on 1MDB, as the PAC is only a committee of Parliament which is delegated the responsibility to inquire  into the 1MDB scandal – and the final decision whether the PAC Report is satisfactory and complete must come from Parliament through a resolution after debate on a motion to accept or reject the PAC Report on 1MDB.

However, Malaysian  Parliament must be the first Parliament in the world where it is denied of the “full and integral” PAC Report on 1MDB, where the AG’s Report on 1MDB which should be an appendix or attachment to the PAC Report was omitted on the grounds of Official Secrets Act  – a most unprecedented denial of information to MPs to frustrate them from making a proper  judgment on the  PAC Report on 1MDB!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 10 July 2016, 3:27 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Can Salleh give one instance to rebut the prevailing view that the  publication of AG’s Report on 1MDB would pose no  grave national security threat but would only confirm allegations of 1MDB’s global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption?

The Multimedia and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has continued to exaggerate and overstate the case for the unprecedented violation of world-wide parliamentary practice and convention when the Najib government refused to allow the Auditor-General’s Report on the 1MDB to be presented to Parliament as appendix to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB when the PAC Report was tabled in Parliament on the last day of the March/April meeting on April 7.

This despite three important backgrounds about the  AG’s Report on 1MDB, viz:

•	Firstly, It  is  an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB, without which the PAC Report would be incomplete;

•	Secondly, that the PAC  in its proceedings, relied almost entirely on the findings of the AG’s Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations; and

•	thirdly, that PAC members  from the government backbench and opposition concurred fully with the AG’s Report and never at any point of time, as recorded in the PAC Hansard, disagreed or rejected the findings.

Salleh, who had been the lone Ministerial voice denouncing the whistleblowing website Sarawak Report’s daily exposes of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB, has taken the extreme position of declaring that the security of the nation was at risk by describing the Sarawak Report exposes of the AG’s Report on 1MDB as “nothing short of an act of treason”.

Salleh will not find significant support from the Malaysian population to agree with his extreme position that the Sarawak Report exposes of the AG’s Report on 1MDB was “an act of treason” when it only confirmed suspicions that the nation’s first global financial scandal, the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, involved global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption, which are the subject of investigations by seven separate foreign countries.

Can Salleh give a single instance to rebut the prevailing view that the  publication of AG’s Report on 1MDB would pose no  grave national security threat but would only confirm suspicions and allegations  of 1MDB global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption?

If Salleh is unable to do so, then he cannot blame the majority of Malaysians for believing that the  publication of AG’s Report on 1MDB would pose no  grave national security threat but would only confirm and justify foreign investigations of 1MDB’s global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption and raise the important question as to why the country’s various enforcement and investigative agencies as well as the highest political and legislative chamber of the land, Parliament,  have failed their  duties in the face of the nation’s first global corruption scandal, involving multi-billion ringgit embezzlement and money-laundering?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 11 July 2016, 10:09 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Patto’s Malaysian Dream is the Dream of all Patriotic Malaysians

DAP MP for Batu Kawan, Kasthuri Patto, wrote a touching article on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the death of her father, P. Patto, one of the giants in the pantheon of Malaysian leaders  in the half-century history of the DAP.

Patto was never just an  Indian leader as he was always a  Malaysian leader.

He dedicated his life not for an Indian Malaysia, definitely not a Chinese Malaysia, but a Malaysian Malaysia where every Malaysian, regardless of whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban; Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Taoist is proud to be a Malaysian first and last.

As Kasthuri wrote:

“He (Patto) gave up 18 months of his life behind bars, away from his wife and two daughters, away from his whole family, away from his party cadres, comrades, friends and supporters, all for valiantly fighting for his rights, for following his conscience and principles and for fighting for a Malaysian Malaysia where every Malaysian, regardless of skin, colour, race, religion, gender, language, age and political ideology, is treated equally and with respect under the Malaysian sun.

“Fast  forward to 2013, during my campaign in the 13th general election when I contested in Batu Kawan, Penang, many of my father’s dear friends, Malays, Indians, Chinese, Sikhs, men and women, came forward with tears in their eyes that they were so happy to see the name ‘Patto’ re-emerge after such a long time.”

We in DAP must always remember the legacy of Patto and other Malaysian giants in the DAP pantheon who have left us, leaders like Karpal Singh, DAP National Chairman, MP par excellence and leading constitutional lawyer; Ibrahim Singgeh, the first elected DAP Perak State Assemblyman;  Ahmad Nor, the first elected DAP MP; former MP/SA Datuk Chian Heng Kai who, together with former MP Chan Kok Kit, was detained for four years and nine months under the Internal Security Act; Peter Dason, the first DAP MP in Penang going back to 1969; Sdri Loke Swee Chin, former Perak State Assemblyman woman and DAP Wanita Chief and countless other DAP comrades-at-arms.

I am reminded of my visit in December last year to Bagan Serai, where Patto was born on 19th December 1946, bringing back memories of the DAP contest in the Alor Pongsu by-election in 1974, where Patto and I had campaigned for the DAP by-election candidate Che Rose bin Haji Abdullah and secured some 3,500 votes, which included a significant Malay voter support in the area.

As I said in Bagan Serai in December last year, one common value the early leaders of DAP shared in great bounty was our love for the country and our commitment and dedication to make Malaysia a better place for future generations.

I  said:

“We were in politics not for what we can get from it for ourselves whether in terms of monetary gain or material advancements, but for what we can do to translate our ideals and convictions to ensure that there is genuine national unity, greater justice, freedom, good governance and better society for all Malaysians.

“We set out in politics without any idea of wanting to become Member of Parliament or State Assembly representative, but in terms of what we can do to serve and improve the nation and make it closer to our ideals and aspirations.

“In the process, we became Members of Parliament or State Assembly representatives but we must never lose sight of the fact that becoming elected as MPs or SAs should not be the be-all and end-all of our political involvement, but only as a means to achieve our political ideals and aspirations.”

This is an important reminder to all DAP leaders, especially with the activation of a very high-powered black operation to continue to demonize the DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers although we have repeatedly reaffirmed our endorsement and commitment  to the fundamental features of the Malaysian Constitution.

No one can be loyal and committed to the fundamental principles of the Malaysian Constitution if he is anti-Malay or any racial group in the country; anti-Islam or anti any religion in the country; or anti-Malay Rulers or the institution of constitutional monarchy.

I had been the most demonized political leader in the past  50 years. I was even accused of being responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur, making anti-Malay and anti-Islam epithets although I was never even in Kuala Lumpur on that day because I was in Sabah.

In our plural society today, there are still Chinese who are living completely in the Chinese world, Malays who are living in a completely Malay world, Indians who are living in a completely Indian world, and the same goes with the Ibans and the Kadazans.

Our greatest challenge is how to reach out to them, the Chinese living in a completely in the Chinese world, Malays living in a completely Malay world, Indians living in a completely Indian world, to share with them a larger Malaysian picture and perspective – to share our ideals that this beloved Malaysian nation belongs to all of us, that we have a  shared destiny.

This is what the DAP had embarked on 50 years ago, the mission for which Patto had  lived and died for but it is an unfinished business.

It is no easy task. We may even fail as there is no guarantee of success. But what we can be sure  that if this Malaysian mission fails, then there is no way that Patto’s Malaysian Dream which we are share can succeed.

Patto’s Malaysian Dream is the Dream of all patriotic Malaysians.

We must therefore labour to realise  the Malaysian Dream  whatever the odds.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 12 July 2016, 7:09 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Malaysian Dream
,
nation building
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


What my father P Patto taught me

Kasthuri Patto

Malaysiakini

12th July 2016

COMMENT
 Today, July 12, marks the 21st anniversary of the passing of my father, P Patto.

Twenty-one years have passed and the void left behind hits hard, for not only my mother, my sister and my family but to all his old friends, party cadres, supporters and Malaysians alike, from all walks of life.

It was on a Wednesday morning that he left us so suddenly and the news shook many Malaysian comrades, parliamentarians, statesmen, leaders of nations and also from dear members of civil society.

Condolence messages poured in from all over the world via phone calls, letters, condolence cards, telegrams and bouquets of flowers.

I sat in utter shock over my father, a towering principled man, a giant in defending human rights, a tireless fighter for the oppressed, the marginalised and the down-trodden. A man with a hearty laugh and a huge appetite for living life to the fullest was no more in my life!

No more warm hugs, no more of his comforting reassuring voice, no more “papa”. At the tender age of 15 and my sister at 13 – a horrible age to lose one’s father.

But what shocked me most was the number of people, thousands of Malaysians from all walks of life, of every skin colour, race and religion, who came to pay their last respects to their comrade and openly cried bitter tears that their good friend, brother, comrade, leader had suddenly left them.

Some scolded him for not taking care of himself and for throwing himself into his work, all for a better Malaysia.

Some, through tears, shared their last moments with him over coffee, over their last banana leaf lunch with him, how they both slept on the floor in an office in Sabah, how he stayed with them in their homes and how he instantly became like family.

I cannot describe the pain I felt at the thought of my life without my knight in shining armour, but I believe with all my heart that, on that day, Malaysians came together as one,

Malaysians put political ideologies aside, race, religion and skin colour to mourn the passing of my father, and Malaysia’s loss of a leader who put the people’s rights, needs, wants and dreams before his own.

At ease anywhere, with anyone

P Patto was a man who, standing on a table at a coffee shop in Lawan Kuda, Kopisan in Gopeng, rallied a crowd of Chinese and Indian uncles and aunties. I have seen in photos how they clapped and cheered him on as he poked fun at MCA, MIC and Umno leaders and their excessive wealth, abuse of power, corruption and torrential abuse of human rights.

At the same time, I was also amazed to see pictures of my father with leaders and statesmen from international communities in Geneva, boldly speaking on the massive crackdown on the freedom of speech, assembly, press and religion at home.

(On one occasion, my father was greeted by Special Branch officers upon arrival in a European country, only to be bundled back on the next flight back to Malaysia.)

I have heard numerous, wonderful stories from Islamic religious leaders on how my father had the highest respect for people of all ethnicities, and had embraced the diversity of these cultures.

One fondly shared with me that when my father tapped his forehead lightly, as would any Malay person, it indicated bad news. They were surprised that an Indian man from a party that was poisonously painted as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, portrayed respect, solidarity and togetherness with his Malay friends, comrades and supporters.

He spoke near perfect Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien and these peppered his fiery speeches on the decay and rot of leadership by Umno/BN under the fourth prime minister at that time.

Fishermen, farmers, teachers and businessmen alike would travel far just to attend his rallies.

He opened the eyes of the Indian communities in Malaysia who idolised the then-president of MIC.

He showed them the gross mismanagement of the people’s money – poor people’s money in the mammoth Maika scandal of the MIC, for which justice has yet to see the light of day.

He was truly a Malaysian leader.

Can anyone speak like P Patto?

My father served 18 months – 60 days of solitary confinement in the Perak police headquarters in Ipoh and the remaining 16 months in Kem Tahanan Perlindungan Kamunting in Taiping – under the Internal Security Act.

He was caught in the ‘Operasi Lalang’ dragnet in 1987 – not for theft, robbery, murder or for any abuse of public funds or abuse of power when he was state assemblyperson and Member of Parliament, but for doctored, false and malicious claims, concocted by the then-prime minister and home minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, that he, alongside many other leaders, were threats to national security.

He gave up 18 months of his life behind bars, away from his wife and two daughters, away from his whole family, away from his party cadres, comrades, friends and supporters, all for valiantly fighting for his rights, for following his conscience and principles and for fighting for a Malaysian Malaysia where every Malaysian, regardless of skin colour, race, religion, gender, language, age and political ideology, is treated equally and with respect under the Malaysian sun.

Fast forward to 2013, during my campaign in the 13th general election when I contested in Batu Kawan, Penang, many of my father’s dear friends, Malays, Indians, Chinese, Sikhs, men and women, came forward with tears in their eyes that they were so happy to see the name ‘Patto’ re-emerge after such a long time.

They embraced me and longingly said they wished that my father were around today, in this time, in such a tumultuous political climate.

They chuckled, imagining the kind of insults, jokes and most importantly, the intelligent arguments that would rain down on BN in the state assembly sittings and in the Dewan Rakyat.

His legacy extends to me. I have been asked: “Can you speak like your father?”

I humbly reply: “Can anyone speak like P Patto?”

My father would have wanted a Malaysian Malaysia that is free from racism, bigotry, corruption, scandals, inequality and cruelty.

One may call him an idealist, but I would rather follow the dreams of an idealist to strive relentlessly to achieve what I can, than be a pessimist who scoffs at idealism. He hated race-based political parties and hated more the venom such parties spew.

P Patto would want Malaysians alike, from all walks of life, to come together, without fear or favour to reject and to continuously fight a government built upon the foundation of tyranny, injustice, hatred, discrimination and favouritism.

He died doing what he dedicated his life for. A Malaysian Malaysia, for our children, so that they, with their heads held high, can live together with dignity, love and courage.

Malaysia mourns your passing today, dear Papa.

Till we meet again, dear Papa. Sorely missed, but never forgotten.

KASTHURI PATTO is DAP’s Batu Kawan MP. Her father, P Patto served as Gopeng assemblyperson, Menglembu MP and Bagan MP. He died of a heart attack on July 12, 1995.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 12 July 2016, 5:23 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


DAP does not want UMNO to die, but to reform and renew itself which can only occur if it is defeated at least once in general elections to mark  Malaysia  becoming a normal democratic country

Yesterday’s
Malaysiakini
 report
“’DAP must die’ – Umno protesters cast hell notes”
 by Alyaa Azhar on the Red-Shirt UMNO  demonstration outside the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said:

“Quizzed on the hell notes, one of the protesters replied: ‘Kerana kita nak kasi orang DAP mati ma (We want DAP people to die).’

“Chipping in, Federal Territory Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii said: ‘Something to that effect. They (DAP) wants Umno to die, so we want DAP to die.’”

I do not want here to touch on  why the Police have repeatedly allowed irresponsible and extremist elements in our society to stage demonstrations to provoke and incite racial and religious hatred threatening to burn down headquarters whether of DAP, PKR or Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall but it is necessary to set the record straight so that the extremists and bigots are not allowed to mislead others to commit senseless acts.

DAP had never said it wanted UMNO to die.  I am not aware of any person, political party or organization who had ever said that they want UMNO to die.

DAP does not want UMNO to die, but through the electoral contest,  to reform and renew itself which can only occur if it is defeated at least once in general elections to mark  Malaysia becoming a normal democratic country.

I have said many a time  that UMNO/BN must be voted out of Putrajaya at least once if Malaysia is to become a normal democratic country and break the present national trajectory trending down the slippery slope towards a fractured, failed and rogue state.

This is what I said at a DAP kopitiam ceramah in Pekan Nenas in Johore a fortnight ago:

“No country in the world can become a great nation if globally it is regarded as an increasingly corrupt and dictatorial regime while at home it tightens its grip on power controls to allow for rampant corruption and widespread abuses of power.

“Nobody wants UMNO to be destroyed, and I do not believe that UMNO is so frail and faulty that if it is evicted from Putrajaya in a general election, UMNO will perish and die.

“On the contrary, I believe UMNO will have the vitality and resilience to reform and renew itself when it is out in the political wilderness to transform itself from a party serving the interests of UMNO leaders and their cronies into  a party genuinely dedicated to the welfare of the three million UMNO members, the Malays and Malaysians at large.

“This is a route which had been taken by other political parties or coalitions in other countries which had been ousted from political power after decades in government as the party which had brought about the nation’s independence or founding, like Taiwan, South Korea and India, and there is no reason why UMNO is incapable of reform and renewal like these former ruling parties in other countries.

“If UMNO is defeated once in national elections, it will be great national service for it will enable Malaysia to become normal democratic country, end the national trajectory trending down the slippery slope towards a fractured, failed and rogue state while allowing UMNO to renew and reform itself to be more democratic and competitive to regain national power in future general elections.”

Despite thirteen General Elections in nearly six decades, Malaysia has yet to become a normal democratic country where voters can change the party or political coalition in government peacefully and democratically through the ballot box like other mature democracies without threats of  national catastrophes.

In the past 60 years, there had been six democratic and peaceful changes of government in the United Kingdom, but not a single time in Malaysia. Even Philippines and Indonesia have more democratic traditions and practices than Malaysia, as Filipinos and Indonesians can use the ballot box to change the party or political coalition in power without any national disaster or calamities.

In fact, Malaysia has increasingly become an abnormal country.

It would be unthinkable that in the 52 years  under the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah from 1957 to 2009, the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB which had been the basis and formed an integral part of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB would have been classified under the  Official Secrets Act (OSA) and barred from publication in Parliament and the nation – after the Prime Minister himself had given his word that the Auditor-General’s Report would be available to Malaysians.

Similarly, it would have been completely unthinkable in these 52 years under the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia that the Attorney-General would have cleared the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal and yet agree to the continued classification of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB under OSA in the face of global crackdown on multi-billion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption as well as the global revelations of these wrongdoing and malpractices in the whistleblowing site, Sarawak Report.

A Cabinet Minister had said that those who revealed the abuses of 1MDB are traitors, which would include former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Minister for Rural and National Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, as well as Pakatan Harapan leaders and MPs, but Malaysians are clearly with leaders who are demanding  a full accounting and disclosure of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal, the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, and regard those who stole the country’s money through 1MDB transactions and hide these abuses from the people are the real traitors of Malaysia.

UMNO leaders have been holding onto power by generating the fear that if UMNO is defeated in a general election,  Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land as they will never recover such political power.

This is a double lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if UMNO is evicted from Putrajaya, so the question of the Malays recovering political power never arises.

This is why no UMNO leader had been able to  answer the two questions which had been posed by the National Laureate Pak Samad to expose such  political lies, viz:

“How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for over five decades?

“What have they (Malay leaders) been doing for five decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general election, as the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose political power.

In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.

In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

These  triple factors establish the  overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene – the demographic make-up of the general population, the electorate and the parliamentary constituencies – and why there is no way the Malays can lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 13 July 2016, 3:06 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Malays
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Najib administration should immediately declassify the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB not only to take the wind out of the sails of Sarawak Report but to show to the world that the Malaysian Prime Minister and government have nothing to hide about allegations of 1MDB multi-billion ringgit global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should immediately declassify the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB not only to take the wind out of the sails of the whistleblowing site, Sarawak Report, but to show to the world that the Malaysian Prime Minister and government have nothing to hide about allegations of 1MDB multi-billion ringgit global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption.

The option to keep the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB secret and classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) was never a tenable,  sustainable or wise decision in this information age  when information travels at the speed of light in a borderless world, especially when the decision went against all notions of good governance and principles of accountability and transparency, as well as public pledges by the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor-General himself that the AG’s Report would be made available to the public.

With the announcement by the Sarawak Report website that it is publishing in full the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB, after it had carried daily exposes of the AG’s Report on 1MDB in the past few days, Najib and the Malaysian Government are only inviting global scorn, contempt and  humiliation if they continue to keep the AG’s Report under wraps in Malaysia under the OSA while it is available to the world as well as to Malaysians on the borderless Internet.

The Cabinet at its meeting yesterday should have discussed the subject of the declassification of the AG’s Report to defend Malaysia’s international reputation and image.  Was this subject discussed by the Ministers yesterday?

Najib and the Malaysian Government should cut their losses and immediately declassify the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB unless there are compelling reasons which do not allow the Najib administration to do so – and if so, it could have nothing to with the national security as the AG’s Report had been the basis of the PAC proceedings and report on the 1MDB, and in fact, the AG’s Report on 1MDB is an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB and should have  appeared as an appendix of the PAC Report on 1MDB when it was tabled in Parliament on April 7.

There could only be one reason why the AG’s Report on 1MDB cannot be made public, that it would point incriminating fingers unerringly on the culpability and guilt of those responsible for Malaysia’s first global scandals – the RM55 billion 1MDB and Najib’s RM4.2 billion twin mega scandals – and the charges of multi-billion ringgit global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption which are the subject of investigations by seven other national jurisdictions.

Is this the reason?

Najib cannot continue to be silent and must speak up why he is compromising the nation’s international reputation and standing by obstinately refusing to make the AG’s Report on 1MDB  public?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 14 July 2016, 1:09 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


UBS Said to Have Flagged Suspicious 1MDB Transactions to MAS

Jeffrey Voegeli and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

Bloomberg

July 13, 2016

UBS Group AG flagged suspicious transactions linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, prompting an investigation of the accounts involved, a person familiar with the matter said.

The transactions were not immediately recognized by UBS as suspicious, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. At least $1.24 billion was transferred in 2014 from the account of a 1MDB subsidiary held at BSI SA in Lugano, Switzerland, to a UBS account in Singapore held by what appeared to be a unit of an Abu Dhabi company, U.K.-based investigative blog Sarawak Report said on July 11.

A spokeswoman for UBS declined to comment on the 1MDB transfers. When asked about the UBS case, the Singapore regulator referred to its previous statements made on March 31 and May 24. MAS has said it is conducting supervisory reviews of several financial institutions and bank accounts through which suspicious and unusual transactions have taken place, without identifying the parties involved.

The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund is at the center of probes in its home country and other jurisdictions including Singapore, Switzerland and the U.S. as regulators seek to determine if some of the billions of dollars it raised were siphoned off. While 1MDB has denied wrongdoing, a Malaysian parliamentary committee in April identified at least $4.2 billion of questionable transactions, including those involving Abu Dhabi companies.

Singaporean regulators said in May they will strip BSI’s local unit of its banking license amid global investigations surrounding 1MDB. BSI, which is based in Lugano, was fined S$13.3 million ($9.9 million) for 41 breaches, including its failure to conduct due diligence on high-risk accounts and monitor suspicious customer transactions.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 14 July 2016, 10:43 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


What has happened to the high-level police probe into the PAC Report on 1MDB  headed by IGP himself after more than three months?

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abu Khalid said last Saturday that the police will verify with the Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, whether the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB purportedly leaked by the whistleblowing website Sarawak Report was the genuine document.

He said: “We’re also not sure if the document they published is genuine. So let me discuss with the auditor-general (Ambrin Buang) first to make sure whether the document is truly the auditor-general’s report, which has been classified as secret.”

Two questions are in order.

Firstly, as a week has passed, has Khalid verified from Ambrin whether the Auditor-General’s Report on the 1MDB was the genuine report, especially as Sarawak Report is publishing the full AG’s Report on its site.

Secondly, why didn’t the Police have a copy of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB to allow the Police to establish on its own whether the AG’s Report on 1MDB purportedly leaked by Sarawak Report was genuine?

Khalid had announced more than three months ago that a high-level police investigation team had been formed headed by him to scrutinize the report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 1MDB.

As the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) proceedings had  relied almost entirely on the findings of the AG Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations, making the AG’s Report on 1MDB an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB, how can the Inspector-General of Police explain the police failure to have a copy of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB after more than three months of police investigations into the PAC Report?

Let Khalid explain what has happened to the high-level police probe into the PAC Report on 1MBD headed by IGP himself after more than three months?

Is it not true that it is impossible for the police to take any action against the former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi for 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption offences without eventually incriminating the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself as Najib was  the sole person who must be held responsible for all the decisions and transactions, including those made against the decisions of the 1MDB Board of Directors?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 15 July 2016, 1:55 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Will the Police investigate criminal offences of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB although the AG’s Report is classified under the OSA?

I have been intrigued by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement last Saturday that he had to verify from the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang whether the revelations and exposes by the whistleblowing website Sarawak Report were genuine version of the AG’s Report.

This is because the Police should have a copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB.

It is over three months ago that the Police had announced a high-level team to probe the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report which is headed by none other than the IGP himself.

As the PAC report on the 1MDB is based on the AG’s Report on 1MDB, which in a most unprecedented parliamentary manoeuvre  had been omitted as an appendix to the PAC Report when laid in Parliament on April 7, is the IGP implying that the Police did not have a copy of the AG’s Report on 1MDB despite over three months of investigation into the PAC Report because it is classified under the OSA?

What then is this high-level investigation which is being conducted by the police since the tabling of the PAC Report in Parliament in early April?

There seems to be only one farce after another from one national institution to another in the sorry saga of the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal!

If the Police had a copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB, there would be no need for the police to verify with the Auditor-General as to whether the leaked version of the Sarawak Report was the genuine document, as the police should be able to ascertain this matter on its own based on its copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB.

If the Police does not have a copy of the Auditor-General’s Report on the 1MDB because it is classified under the OSA, does this mean that the Police can only investigate into the various wrongdoings highlighted by the PAC Report but not the AG’s Report.

This brings me to the most important question: Will the Police investigate criminal offences of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB although the AG’s Report is classified under the OSA – or will the Police decline to even begin investigations solely on the ground that the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB is a classified document which the police has no access and should have no access?

The Malaysian Police, just like the Malaysian Prime Minister and Government will be the laughing-stock of their counterparts all over the world if this is the case, as seven other countries have instituted investigations on their own into 1MDB multi-billion ringgit global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption charges.

Let IGP Khalid clarify this before the government and the country goes round in circles about the AG’s Report on 1MDB and the Sarawak Report’s purported leak of the entire AG Report on its website.

It is almost a week since the Sarawak Report started its latest series of articles on the AG’s Report on 1MDB, followed by the announcement of the full release of the AG’s Report.

The country and people have a right to hear from the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, the Chairman of the PAC Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin and the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid whether  the Sarawak Report had published a genuine version from the AG’s Report on 1MDB; if not, why they are not prepared to say so in a straight-forward manner; and if yes, what they proposed to do to show the world the Malaysian Government is serious about the integrity and the fight against corruption, as well as about good governance and the principles of accountability, transparency and meaningful parliamentary democracy.

(Speech at the opening of the Parliamentary Democracy Workshop organised by NGO ENGAGED at M Suites Hotel, Johor Baru on Saturday, 16th July 2016 at 9.30 am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 16 July 2016, 3:28 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysians must be able to hope again that change of Federal Government which was within a whisker of achievement in the 13GE was possible and realizable in 14GE, even if held in July/August next year

In the 13th General Election in 2013 three years ago, Malaysians regardless of race and religion were never so united in wanting to bring about a change of Federal Government, which would be regarded as unthinkable and impossible just five years earlier before the “political tsunami” of the 12th General Election in 2008.

Although the majority of voters voted for change of Federal Government, the undemocratic and unfair electoral system allowed Datuk Seri Najib Razak to become the first minority Prime Minister in the country because he won some 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats with only some 47% of the popular vote.

Many Malaysians have become disappointed, disenchanted  and given up hope that there is a possibility of democratic change in Malaysia, and have voted with their feet with a surge of migration in the past three years.

The greatest challenge in Malaysia today is to ensure that Malaysians can hope again that change of Federal Government, which was within a whisker of achievement in the 13GE, is still possible and realizable in the 14th General Election even if it is held in July/August next year.

The past three years of the second term of Najib’s premiership marked  Malaysia plumbing to the depths of international image and esteem, with the world looking askance at Malaysia in achieving a new status as a globally corrupt nation making regular world news  for the nation’s first global financial scandals – the RM55 billion 1MDB and Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals  – despite repeatedly attempts to deny or suppress such disclosures by a panoply of laws inside the country.

Never has there been so much hatred and divisiveness in Malaysia which are disseminated with impunity, such as categorizing  Malaysians into  “kafir harbi” and “kafir zimmi”, which is not only against the very concept of Malaysian nation-building and the fundamental features of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and 1963 Malaysia Agreement, but what is most unprecedented, an usage which is defended by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The UMNO propagandists and  their cybertroopers are doing their worst to incite hatred and divisiveness among Malaysians, generating distrust among the diverse races and religions in the country.

Such irresponsible tactics reflect on their desperation and not on their confidence that they are the sure winners in the 14th General Election.

If we can debunk the lies and falsehoods that the future and fate of Malays are inextricably tied to the victory of UMNO in general elections; that the claim that if UMNO loses in the 14GE,the Malays will lose political power in Malaysia is a blatant falsehood; then the conditions are there for a change of Federal Government and for Malaysia to become a normal democratic country where the people  can change governments without national catastrophes or disasters.

(Speech at the Bercham DAP Dinner in Bercham, Ipoh on Saturday, July 16, 2016 at 8.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 July 2016, 1:01 pm and is filed under
Elections
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


UBS, DBS, Falcon face Singapore scrutiny over 1MDB transactions: sources

BY A. ANANTHALAKSHMI AND SAEED AZHAR

REUTERS

16th July 2016

Singapore’s central bank is scrutinizing several banks, including UBS (UBSG.S) and DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI), to see if they broke anti-money laundering rules in handling transactions linked to scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1MDB, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is looking at several aspects of the banks’ operations including whether they were diligent enough in knowing who their customers were and what the source of their funds was, and whether they were particularly careful in screening politically-exposed persons such as government officials, banking and legal sources aware of the review said.

The probe could lead to fines and other penalties if lapses are found, said the sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. It is unclear which transactions by the banks are being examined.

Switzerland’s Falcon Private Bank and Coutts International, which is owned by Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privee, are also among the banks under review, they said.

UBS, Coutts, and DBS, which is Singapore’s top lender, all declined to comment.

When asked about the MAS review, a Zurich-based spokesman for Falcon said: “We have transparently shared our view and have nothing to add.”

Falcon, which is owned by one of the world’s leading sovereign wealth funds – Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) – has previously said it is in contact with Singapore’s central bank and cooperating with authorities.

The MAS is in talks with several banks and will make an announcement on any punitive action against them after the review is completed, sources said. The full details are not known at this stage.

Singapore faces pressure to show that banks in the city-state are complying with increasingly tough anti-money laundering rules around the world. While the United States has imposed hefty fines on banks for lapses related to money laundering, tax evasion and international sanctions, Asian regulators have been generally slow to act, some lawyers said.

“It is also important for Singapore to be seen to be taking action against any abuse of its private banking sector for money laundering,” said Nizam Ismail, Singapore-based partner at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP, where he advises clients on financial services regulation and compliance.

An MAS spokeswoman referred Reuters to its statement in March when it had said that “as part of its investigations into possible money-laundering and other offences in Singapore, it has been conducting a thorough review of various transactions as well as fund flows through our banking system.”

1MDB referred Reuters to its earlier statements. In May, it had said it hadn’t been contacted by any foreign lawful authority on matters relating to the company, and that it remains committed to fully cooperating with the authorities.

The latest probes follow MAS’s decision in late May to close down the operations of Swiss private bank BSI AG in Singapore for serious breaches of anti-money laundering rules, the first time in 32 years it has taken such action against a bank. MAS said then that there had been gross misconduct by some of BSI’s staff and poor management oversight of the bank’s operations.

Though the MAS did not specifically say this related to 1MDB-related transactions, though the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said at the time that BSI had committed serious breaches of money laundering regulations through business relationships and transactions linked to the corruption scandal surrounding 1MDB.

The MAS also imposed a S$13.3 million ($9.9 million) fine on the bank, and on the same day in May, the Swiss authorities said they would seize 95 million Swiss francs ($97 million) of BSI’s profits.

In response, BSI announced that group CEO Stefano Coduri had stepped down and that it had undertaken steps to strengthen management, including introducing a new chief risk officer and appointing a new group legal counsel.

Malaysian companies and banks linked to 1MDB are at the center of corruption and money laundering probes that have led investigators to look at transactions and financial relationships across the globe – from Malaysia to Singapore and the Seychelles, from Abu Dhabi to offshore companies in the Caribbean, and from the United States to Switzerland.

Probes are being conducted by authorities in the United States, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.

One of the sources said DBS had identified certain questionable financial activities and had voluntarily reported them to the relevant authorities. Reuters couldn’t determine what those activities were.

A Malaysian parliamentary investigation made public earlier this year found that $4.2 billion of 1MDB’s money was unaccounted for or went to overseas bank accounts whose owners could not be ascertained.

1MDB was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in September 2009 to invest in strategic property and energy projects. Najib was the chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board until recently.

Malaysia’s Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib in January of any corruption or criminal offences. He said that $681 million, deposited into Najib’s personal account in March 2013 before a Malaysian general election, was a gift from a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and most of it was returned.

Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Saeed Azhar; additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in LONDON; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Martin Howell)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 July 2016, 12:56 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Is Najib the victor or a dead man walking?

Koon Yew Yin

Malaysiakini

17th July 2016

COMMENT
 So far, if we go by the mainstream and official media reports, it appears as if Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the big victor in the 1MDB and personal donation double scandals.

But is this such a certainty? Have the Umno rebels and the Umno revolt been crushed? Has Najib been cleared of his alleged political sins and crime, just because the attorney-general (AG) has declared that there will be no charges against the PM and that the RM2.6 billion political donation and RM42 million from SRC International transferred into Najib’s personal bank accounts cases are closed?

Has his nemesis, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, met his Waterloo? Will Najib be leading Umno and BN to another five more years of rule after the next election?

These views of a Najib victory and the defeat of Pakatan and the Umno dissidents led by Mahathir and Muhyiddin Yassin have been strengthened by the recent Sarawak election results and the success of BN in the two recent by-elections. The disarray within Pakatan Harapan and failure of the Citizens’ Declaration to ignite a grassroots fire targeting the prime minister have also led to much crowing from the pro-Najib camp.

Umno’s ‘dedak’ (animal feed) eaters and prepaid bloggers, including a prominent ex-opposition born-again Umno supporter and racial chauvinist writing all the way from Manchester, have been more than boastful. They have been writing night and day about how Najib has triumphed; they have praised him sky high for his political skills and acumen; they have screaming headlines in their blog sites, such as ‘It wasn’t bullshit. Najib has been telling us the truth all along’.

There are two main reasons why I disagree with their assessment.

I believe (and there are many analysts out there who feel exactly the same way, except that, unlike me, they are afraid, unwilling or unable to publish their opinions openly)

Najib is living on borrowed time. Together with his wife Rosmah Mansor, as well as the alleged masterminds and those benefiting from the 1MDB fiasco, we can be sure that they still cannot sleep well at night; and are also probably having nightmares of going to jail.

Investigations continuing in Singapore, Switzerland and US

The first reason is that although the investigations into 1MDB and the donation have come to a standstill in Malaysia, they are continuing in Singapore, Switzerland and the US. These investigations cannot be aborted the way they have been in Malaysia.

Everyone connected to the Internet now knows that Abdul Gani Patail, the then AG who arrived at his office to finalise the corruption charges against the prime minister resulting from the investigations of the multi-agency task force into 1MDB, was unceremoniously sacked.

According to an informant to the Sarawak Report: “He was finalising it. He went to his office and found he could not go in. Ali Hamsa, the chief secretary to the government, was waiting and he told him [the attorney-general, Abdul Gani Patail] that he was dismissed. He could not even get his papers.”

Furthermore, Sarawak Report noted that “within hours of this secret drama at the heart of government, as all Malaysia knows, the prime minister had moved to effect what has been described as an attempted coup d’etat”.

“The head of Special Branch was removed, the deputy prime minister was dumped and four members of the investigating Public Accounts Committee were elevated without choice to positions in cabinet and its work was declared suspended. Other known cabinet critics of the 1MDB scandal have also been unceremoniously dismissed by the prime minister.”

Najib may have got rid of his cabinet and Umno critics, but the celebration by his cronies and supporters is premature.

As the saying goes, “The empire has struck back”. This is the second reason why, apart from the ongoing foreign investigations and new foreign bombs likely to explode when least expected, Najib may be a dead man walking as a result of the latest local bomb.

The empire strikes back

The Malaysian bomb is a result of his Umno critics under Dr Mahathir’s leadership setting up a new party.

To me the most important political development in the last few months are the events leading to the statement by sacked Umno deputy president Muhyiddin calling attention to the emergence of a new party and a proposed truce among opposition parties so that they can work together to prepare for the next general election.

In his statement, Muhyiddin said: “I agree with Mahathir’s suggestion to set up a new political party that will cooperate with all quarters, including Pakatan Harapan, PAS and civil society, to continue the struggle to save Malaysia, while taking necessary steps to enact institutional reforms.”

Muhyiddin appears to be now echoing the proposal by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and PKR deputy president Azmin Mohamed Ali, for Harapan and PAS as well as others, to come back to the negotiation table to form an opposition front for the coming general election.

According to him, “This pact is extremely important to give the people confidence that other parties, besides BN, can lead Malaysia better and take care of the people’s needs.”

The proposed grand coalition may appear to be the chance for the opposition to get rid of Prime Minister Najib.

But to me, it is important to point out that it is our last hope for institutional reform and the last chance for us to achieve our goal of a developed nation, which under BN rule has become an impossible dream.

KOON YEW YIN, a retired chartered engineer, is a philanthropist.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 July 2016, 4:28 pm and is filed under
Anwar Ibrahim
,
Mahathir
,
Muhyiddin Yassin
,
Najib Razak
,
Pakatan Harapan
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Did the Cabinet this morning discuss the breaking news of the WSJ report that the US authorities are set to seize assets linked to 1MDB “in the largest asset seizure in US history” in the war against global corruption?

Did  the Cabinet this morning discuss the breaking news at about noon Malaysian time of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that the US authorities are set to seize assets linked to 1MDB “in the largest asset seizure in US history” in the war against global corruption?

This seizure, under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, is expected to exceed the previous record of US$850 million in assets which the US authorities sought to seize from three telecom firms in an unrelated case.

Citing sources, WSJ  said the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is expected to file civil lawsuits seeking to seize the assets as soon as Wednesday morning in the US.

It claimed the seizure will involve properties and other assets bought with “money allegedly misappropriated from the Malaysian fund.”

If the WSJ report is true and correct, this will be a “day of infamy” for Malaysia, a culmination of the host  of global infamies which the country had suffered  in the past year, from being named by the international website, foreignpolicy.com, as the host country for the world’s third “worst corruption scandal of 2015” at the end of last year, to being cited by Time Magazine in March this year as the second worst  example of current global corruption and in May, rising to number two in the Economist index of crony capitalism, just behind Russia – all because of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

What is the Cabinet position on this latest twist and turn of the protracted global  development of the 1MDB scandal, which has long ceased to be financial scandal confined to the four walls of Malaysia, but probably the biggest global case of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, 3:19 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


QuickTake Q&A: Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Spawns Worldwide Probes

Shamim Adam and Laurence Arnold

Bloomberg

July 20, 2016

Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, was supposed to attract foreign investment. Instead, it has spurred criminal and regulatory investigations around the world that have cast an unflattering spotlight on financial deal-making, election spending and political patronage under Prime Minister Najib Razak. A Malaysian parliamentary committee identified at least $4.2 billion in irregular transactions.

1. What is 1MDB?

It’s a government investment company — full name, 1Malaysia Development Berhad — that took shape in 2009 under Najib, who went on to lead its advisory board. Its early initiatives included buying privately owned power plants and planning a new financial district in Kuala Lumpur. The fund proved better at borrowing — it accumulated $12 billion in debt — than at luring large-scale investment.

2. What’s the issue?

Investigators have been trying to trace whether money might have flowed through and around 1MDB and illegally into personal accounts. Some of the money is alleged to have ended up with Najib and his family. That includes $681 million that landed in the prime minister’s personal bank account, according to the Wall Street Journal. Najib has denied wrongdoing, and Malaysia’s attorney general said the $681 million was a donation from the Saudi Arabian royal family, much of which was returned. Another $700 million in 1MDB funds meant for a joint venture with a company known as PetroSaudi International was found to have landed in an unrelated offshore account.

3. Who is investigating?

There are probes related to 1MDB in at least 10 countries, focused on possible embezzlement or money laundering. At home, investigations have been less pointed. Malaysia’s attorney general rejected central bank requests for a criminal probe, and a parliamentary committee absolved Najib and blamed financial and reporting lapses on 1MDB’s former CEO, Shahrol Halmi, who says he did nothing wrong. 1MDB officials have also denied wrongdoing.

4. Who is involved?

Though not all have been accused of doing anything wrong, financiers and financial companies have found themselves part of the 1MDB saga:

Goldman Sachs made $593 million working on three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013, dwarfing what banks typically make from government deals. It said last year that fees and commissions “reflected the underwriting risks” it had assumed. New York’s bank regulator has asked the firm for a summary of its 1MDB work.

BSI SA, a 143-year-old Swiss bank that worked with 1MDB, lost its license to do business in Singapore for breaches of money laundering rules. BSI said it will cooperate with authorities.

Riza Aziz, Najib’s stepson, allegedly used money from 1MDB to buy homes in London, New York and Los Angeles and to finance production of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” according to the Journal. The production company he co-owns said it believes none of its funding was “irregular or illegitimate.”

Low Taek Jho, a friend of Riza’s and a high-profile art collector who said he did consulting work for 1MDB’s predecessor, alerted Najib’s bank that “681 American pies” would be arriving just days before the $681 million was transferred, according to the Journal. Efforts to reach him have been unsuccessful.

Tim Leissner, Goldman Sachs’ Southeast Asia chairman, wrote an unauthorized reference letter for Low on the bank’s letterhead. He resigned in February and hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.

The Reference Shelf

A Bloomberg article on how Goldman Sachs has seen Malaysian business evaporate.

A chart showing how foreign funds have been pulling money from Malaysian stocks.

A graphic showing the worldwide scale of the 1MDB probe.

A QuickTake explainer on the costs of corruption.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, 2:00 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


U.S. Readies Push to Seize Assets Tied to Malaysian Fund 1MDB

By BRADLEY HOPE

Wall Street Journal

July 20, 2016

Authorities are expected to file civil lawsuits as soon as Wednesday

Federal prosecutors are poised to launch one of the largest asset seizures in U.S. history as they step up their investigation into billions of dollars siphoned away from a Malaysian government investment fund, according to people familiar with the matter.

Authorities are expected to file civil lawsuits as soon as Wednesday morning seeking to seize assets, which are expected to include properties and other assets purchased with money allegedly misappropriated from the Malaysian fund, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that people linked to the fund have invested millions of dollars in real estate and businesses in the U.S.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s international corruption unit have also been conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into people and institutions connected with 1Malaysia Development Bhd., known as 1MDB, a sovereign-wealth fund set up by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to drive the country’s economy.

The expected asset seizures would be the U.S. government’s first action tied to the 1MDB investigation. It is unknown what assets will be seized, but the action is expected to surpass civil suits filed since 2015 seeking to seize $850 million in assets involving three telecom companies in an unrelated case, according to people familiar with the matter. The people say the investigation is continuing.

The move by U.S. authorities to seize assets tied to an investment fund run by a foreign government would be a major escalation in Washington’s global efforts to fight corruption and block allegedly illegally obtained funds from moving through the world’s financial system.

The expected actions by U.S. authorities also threaten to upend the country’s relationship with Malaysia, a moderate Muslim nation that has long been an important U.S. ally in Southeast Asia. Malaysia has deep ties to the Middle East and has been seen as a bulwark against China, which has increasingly asserted its power across Asia. President Barack Obama cultivated a relationship with Mr. Najib, including playing golf together in Hawaii over the Christmas holidays in 2014.

The asset seizure is being led by the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which was set up in 2010 to target the spoils of overseas corruption cases. Its biggest attempted seizure so far was $850 million of assets related to alleged corruption by three global telecom companies and intermediaries close to the elder daughter of Uzbekistan’s president. VimpelCom Ltd., a telecommunications company based in Amsterdam, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Unitel LLC, agreed in February to pay $795 million to settle a corruption case with U.S. and Dutch regulators. VimpelCom admitted wrongdoing and Unitel pleaded guilty. The Uzbek president’s daughter couldn’t be reached for comment at the time. The asset forfeiture case is still in litigation.

The Journal has reported over the past year about many aspects of the alleged money laundering and siphoning of cash away from 1MDB. Funds that originated with 1MDB made their way into real estate in New York City and Los Angeles worth tens of millions of dollars and the funding of the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, according to people familiar with probes in two countries.

At the center of those U.S. inquiries are several characters in the long-running 1MDB drama: Riza Aziz, stepson of Mr. Najib and son of Malaysia’s first lady, Rosmah Mansor; Jho Low, a young Malaysian financier who helped set up 1MDB and played an important role in nearly all of its dealings, and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi managing director of a sovereign-wealth fund with extensive dealings with 1MDB, according to people familiar with the U.S. investigation.

Investigators believe at least $50 million of luxury real estate in New York City and Los Angeles was bought by Mr. Aziz using funds originating with 1MDB, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Aziz, who runs Hollywood production company Red Granite Pictures, bought the two properties from Mr. Low, who has even broader investments and dealings in the U.S.

The Journal reported in May how Mr. Low had started liquidating an art collection worth at least $300 million, including the sale of a prized Basquiat painting at a loss. He also owns stakes in hotels, a music publishing business and several other companies abroad.

A spokesman for Red Granite Pictures, which produced “The Wolf of Wall Street,” said earlier this year that there was nothing improper about Mr. Aziz’s business dealings and that the company was cooperating with inquiries. Lawyers for Mr. Low and Mr. Al Qubaisi have previously declined multiple requests for comment on the investigations.

Asset seizures in the U.S. would be a culminating moment for the at least six global investigations into allegations of fraud and money-laundering related to 1MDB. After Mr. Najib set it up, 1MDB raised more than $13 billion of debt, some of it with the help of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

But as much as $6 billion of the money went missing, according to a person familiar with one country’s investigation. Hundreds of millions of dollars of it was diverted into Mr. Najib’s own bank accounts in Malaysia ahead of important elections, according to bank transfer documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with investigations in two countries.

Mr. Najib was at the helm of 1MDB throughout all of the transactions that are under investigation. The Journal has reported that money from the fund was used to help him win a tight re-election campaign in 2013 and that he and his wife spent $15 million of money that originated with 1MDB and ended up in their bank accounts.

Mr. Najib and Malaysia’s attorney general have said the money in his bank accounts was a gift from the Saudi royal family. The attorney general cleared Mr. Najib of wrongdoing and said most of the money was returned. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry acknowledged a donation to Malaysia but declined to comment further. The 1MDB fund denies wrongdoing and says it is ready to cooperate with any investigation. It said on several occasions it hasn’t been contacted by a foreign investigative agency.

The properties U.S. investigators are probing were bought with a portion of money diverted to what appeared to be an Abu Dhabi business partner of 1MDB, according to the people familiar with the probes and documents reviewed by the Journal.

The business partner allegedly moved the money through a British Virgin Islands company, which then sent it to a company owned and controlled by Mr. Najib’s stepson, Mr. Aziz. He used some of the money transferred to his company to buy a 7,700-square-foot, $33.5 million duplex in the Park Laurel condominium tower overlooking New York’s Central Park and an 11,000-square-foot walled mansion in Beverly Hills with a 120-foot-long pool for more than $17.5 million, according to documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with probes in two countries.

Mr. Aziz is also a major collector of movie paraphernalia, including a rare $1 million movie poster for the 1927 Fritz Lang science-fiction film “Metropolis.”

Regulators in Switzerland and Singapore have brought actions this year related to 1MDB investigations. In coordinated announcements, they targeted Swiss private bank BSI SA that they say played a pivotal role in some of 1MDB’s biggest transactions.

Switzerland’s financial regulator, Finma, accused BSI of committing serious breaches of money-laundering regulations in its dealings with 1MDB “despite clearly suspicious indications.” BSI was ordered to pay 95 million Swiss francs ($99 million).

BSI said at the time that its CEO was stepping down immediately and that it cooperated fully with investigations by regulators in Switzerland and Singapore. The company said later it was appealing the penalties brought by Switzerland.

—Aruna Viswanatha contributed to this article.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, 1:42 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


U.S. Targets $1 Billion in Assets in Malaysian Embezzlement Case

By LOUISE STORY

New York Times

JULY 20, 2016

The United States government plans to move Wednesday to seize more than $1 billion in assets purchased with money that it believes was stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund by people close to the country’s embattled prime minister.

Hidden in the United States in real estate, art and other luxury goods, the money was embezzled from the fund and moved around the world using secretive shell companies that masked its trail, a person familiar with the Justice Department plan said.

The $1 billion that prosecutors will allege was laundered in the United States is but a portion of the billions that international investigators suspect was siphoned off by high-level officials at the fund and their associates. The fund — called 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB — is overseen by the prime minister, Najib Razak, and has become a focus of rising popular discontent with Mr. Najib’s government amid several investigations at home and abroad.

The forfeiture complaint, to be issued by a unit known as the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, will be the largest such case brought by the Justice Department. The United States is among several governments, including Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland, that have investigated the fund.

The international inquiries into the sovereign wealth fund began last year after an investigative report in The New York Times. As part of a broader examination of the use of shell companies in high-end real estate in the United States, The Times traced the purchases of about $150 million in residential properties in New York and in the Los Angeles area, as well as several works of art, to relatives or associates of Mr. Najib.

The Justice Department will name two of those people in its court filing. One, Riza Aziz, is the stepson of Mr. Najib and a Hollywood producer of films including “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The other, a financier named Jho Low, is a longtime friend of Mr. Aziz and his family. Prosecutors will also name a third person, Khadem al-Qubaisi, who was an official at a government fund in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, that participated in deals with Malaysia’s public fund.

The Justice Department’s kleptocracy unit often seizes assets rather than charging individuals, but an asset complaint does not preclude criminal charges.

Mr. Aziz, Mr. Low and Mr. Qubaisi could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the past, representatives of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Low have acknowledged that their clients own United States properties but have said that they did nothing improper. Mr. Qubaisi did not respond to past inquiries.

Mr. Najib will not be named in the complaint.

Public concern has increased over international corruption and the use of shell companies to hide assets. In the spring, the leak of the so-called Panama Papers cast light on secret offshore accounts held by politicians and other wealthy people from around the world.

The Treasury Department announced recently that it would begin requiring banks to identify customers who use shell companies. And the department began a test program this spring requiring people who buy expensive properties in New York and Miami using cash and shell companies to report their actual identities.

Despite being a leader in enforcement cases involving international bribery, the United States has relatively lenient rules for establishing limited liability companies, known as L.L.C.s, and other types of shell companies. In the case of the Malaysian money, shell companies in Delaware were used.

The forfeiture process is lengthy. First, a court must make sure that no other interested party has a valid claim to the properties. Once true ownership is determined, the court must decide whether the money used to buy those assets was, in fact, earned illicitly. Only then can the government permanently seize the assets.

In the nearer term, the government’s action may increase the political pressure on Mr. Najib, who has been under fire since early 2015, as the Malaysian public has become concerned about the corruption allegations and his rivals have sought to oust him.

Mr. Najib has held on to power by halting investigations into the investment fund and by removing officials in his governing party who criticized him. Some outspoken artists and activists who questioned his conduct on social media face criminal charges, and the government has shut down critical online news outlets. Mr. Najib’s strategy has been effective: Candidates from his party won in recent by-elections.

The 1MDB fund was created in 2009 as a “strategic development company” to invest the Malaysian public’s money, primarily its oil wealth, in projects that would benefit the country. Mr. Low helped set up an earlier version of the fund.

The Times reported last year that Mr. Low was secretly involved in major transactions with a small oil company called PetroSaudi International and Malaysia’s public fund, which was led by Mr. Najib in his position as prime minister. Mr. Low then helped the prime minister’s stepson buy property in the United States using shell companies and finance his movie production company, Red Granite Pictures.

PetroSaudi has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The Times investigation also described lavish spending by the people said to be involved in the theft of funds. The Times documented property transfers between Mr. Low and Mr. Aziz, including one transfer in Beverly Hills that was done entirely behind the veil of a shell company, with no property transfer filed in public records, as well as the role that Mr. Low played in helping to finance Mr. Aziz’s movie business.

The Justice Department has brought other kleptocracy cases against the children of heads of state, including one involving the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan and another involving the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, 4:04 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Call for Special Parliament meeting before National Day to establish an International Royal Commission of Inquiry into Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” mega scandals to regain world respect for Malaysia as country which upholds rule of law and serious about national integrity

The thirty minutes of the live streaming of the press conference of the United States Attorney-General Loretta E. Lynch, accompanied by other top US officials including Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California, FBI Deputy Director Andrew G. McCabe and others at Malaysian  time 11.30 pm last night on the invocation of the US Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative to recover more than $1 billion obtained from corruption involving the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, had been the most shameful, humiliating and mortifying experience for me as a Malaysian, and I believe for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, who love Malaysia and wants Malaysia to be respected all over the world.

Imagine, Malaysians who have dignity and pride about their nation, having to listen the US Attorney-General Lynch telling the whole world:

“The Department of Justice will not allow the American financial system to be used as a conduit for corruption.

“With this action, we are seeking to forfeit and recover funds that were intended to grow the Malaysian economy and support the Malaysian people.  Instead, they were stolen, laundered through American financial institutions and used to enrich a few officials and their associates.  Corrupt officials around the world should make no mistake that we will be relentless in our efforts to deny them the proceeds of their crimes. ”

Or the US Assistant Attorney-General Caldwell who said:

“According to the allegations in the complaints, this is a case where life imitated art.The associates of these corrupt 1MDB officials are alleged to have used some of the illicit proceeds of their fraud scheme to fund the production of The Wolf of Wall Street, a movie about a corrupt stockbroker who tried to hide his own illicit profits in a perceived foreign safe haven.  But whether corrupt officials try to hide stolen assets across international borders – or behind the silver screen – the Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that there is no safe haven.”

Or  US Attorney Decker who said: “Stolen money that is subsequently used to purchase interests in music companies, artwork or high-end real estate is subject to forfeiture under U.S. law. …  All of us are committed to sending a message that we will not allow the United States to become a playground for the corrupt, a platform for money laundering or a place to hide and invest stolen riches.”

Or the FBI Deputy Director McCabe who said: “The United States will not be a safe haven for assets stolen by corrupt foreign officials. Public corruption, no matter where it occurs, is a threat to a fair and competitive global economy.  The FBI is committed to working with our foreign and domestic partners to identify and return these stolen assets to their legitimate owners, the Malaysian people.”

Or Richard Weber of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) who said:

“Today’s announcement underscores the breadth of the alleged corruption and money laundering related to the 1MDB fund. We cannot allow the massive, brazen and blatant diversion of billions of dollars to be laundered through U.S. financial institutions without consequences.”

I believe many Malaysians share my shame and sorrow last night that the good name of the country, diligently built up generations of patriotic Malaysians in the past six decades, have been brought so low as to be equated with the most corrupt and the most heinous of global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption, catapulting Malaysia to one of the top nations in the world in the league of global corruption.

Yesterday morning, when it was reported that the US authorities were set to seize assets linked to 1MDB “in the largest asset seizure in US history” in the war against global corruption, I asked whether  yesterday’s Cabinet meeting had discussed the breaking news in the United States.

I said that if these breaking news reports were  true and correct, it would  be a “day of infamy” for Malaysia – a culmination of the host  of global infamies which the country had suffered  in the past year, from being named by the international website, foreignpolicy.com, as the host country for the world’s third “worst corruption scandal of 2015” at the end of last year, to being cited by Time Magazine in March this year as the second worst  example of current global corruption and in May, rising to number two in the Economist index of crony capitalism, just behind Russia – all because of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

It has in fact turned out into a day of infamy, a day when all Malaysians who love the nation regardless of race, religion or region, can only cringe in shame, and cry as to why their beloved country had been brought so low as to suffer such international humiliation.

The government has so far come out with very lame and tame responses.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s press secretary Tengku Sarifuddin Tengku Ahmad said that the government will fully cooperate with any lawful investigation of Malaysian companies or citizens in accordance with international protocol, and that the  Malaysian authorities have led the way in investigations into 1MDB.

The facts are the very opposite, with the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB still classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), while Malaysians and the world will not  forget the purges involving the Deputy Prime Minister, a senior Minister, the Attorney-General and the chiefs of key investigating and enforcement agencies who were regarded as independent or professional enough in wanting the get to the bottom of Najib’s twin global scandals.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has urged the people not to jump to conclusions in regard to claims about 1MDB made in the United States.

Surely, the government, from the Prime Minister and new  Attorney-General onwards, were not caught by surprise by the action by the US Department of Justice under the Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative?

In fact, in the past ten months since the New York Times first reported on Sept. 22 last year that a US federal grand jury was examining allegations of corruption involving 1MDB under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010, I had made at least a dozen speeches or media statements on the subject.

The next day on Sept. 23, I had asked whether Malaysia had a kleptocrat as a Prime Minister?

In  my speech in Johor Baru on 10th October, I had asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, who was visiting Washington and had met the FBI at the time, whether he was afraid to ask FBI whether Najib was being investigated by the US Department of Justice under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010 for fear of an affirmative answer?

This was what Zahid told Malaysian press in Washington at the time:

“Nothing on 1MDB was raised by the FBI or John Kerry (Secretary of State) or any party that I met when I was in Washington.

“(1MDB) is not a big issue to them at all.

“”Maybe the issue is big as it is shouted about in the country (Malaysia) because in our country it is used as a political issue.”

On 12th November, I had suggested  in Sandakan that US President Obama should be asked the specific question when he visited Malaysia whether FBI and US Department of Justice were investigating Najib under the DOJ’s Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative 2010 in connection with the 1MDB scandal.

With the latest world-shaking developments over the action by the US authorities over the 1MDB-linked assets, Malaysians cannot continue to pretend that we can be “business as usual” on the 1MDB issue, although the mainstream Bahasa Malaysia and English media pretend that nothing has happened by “blacking” out the US developments.

I call for Special Parliament meeting before National Day to establish an International Royal Commission of Inquiry into Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” mega scandals to regain world respect for Malaysia as country which upholds rule of law and serious about national integrity.

(Media Conference Statement at DAP KL Hqrs on Thursday, 21st July 2016 at 1 pm)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 July 2016, 2:46 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


U.S. Links Malaysian Prime Minister to Millions Stolen From Development Fund

By BRADLEY HOPE and  TOM WRIGHT

Wall Street Journal

July 20, 2016

In 1MDB lawsuit, Justice Department trying to seize more than $1 billion in assets

U.S. prosecutors have linked the prime minister of Malaysia, a key American ally in Asia, to hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly siphoned from one of the country’s economic development funds, according to a civil lawsuit seeking the seizure of more than $1 billion of assets from other people connected to him.

The assets, purchased by the stepson of Prime Minister Najib Razak and other persons connected to the fund, include high-end real estate and hotel properties in New York City, Los Angeles and London, artwork by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, and a $35 million jet. They also include rights to the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the civil-forfeiture complaints say.

Mr. Najib isn’t named in the filings, which were made public Wednesday, and he isn’t directly accused by U.S. prosecutors of any wrongdoing. But there are 32 references in the complaint to “Malaysian Official 1,” who allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars in funds siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

A person with direct knowledge of the investigation said “Malaysian Official 1” is Mr. Najib. Descriptions of the official in the filings include information about Mr. Najib’s position at 1MDB along with other identifying details.

The seizure marks a rare confrontation between U.S. prosecutors and an American ally over corruption allegations and could put in jeopardy the country’s relationship with Malaysia, a moderate Muslim nation that is a key U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism and one that serves as a counterpoint to China’s rising ambitions in Asia.

At a news conference in Washington announcing the seizures, Justice Department officials were blunt in their description of the scandal at 1MDB. “The Malaysia people were defrauded on an enormous scale,” said Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The asset seizure would be the largest ever by the Justice Department’s anticorruption effort.

The Journal reported last year how Mr. Najib played a key role in decisions at the fund, which Mr. Najib launched in 2009 to stimulate Malaysia’s economy, including issuing bonds and firing auditors.

Mr. Najib, who has denied wrongdoing, repeatedly has played down troubles at 1MDB, which has little to show for its economic development efforts despite raising $13 billion. He has said 1MDB’s real problem was an overreliance on debt that it has struggled to pay back and that “attacks” by opposition politicians hurt a planned public offering.

His administration has criticized the Journal, claiming its articles about 1MDB were false and based on “sources that may or may not exist.”

Executives at 1MDB have denied any funds were missing and echoed Mr. Najib’s claims that its primary problem was the wrong business plan. Mr. Najib and 1MDB didn’t respond to requests to comment Wednesday.

U.S. investigators paint a starkly different picture in their lawsuits, which instead describe transactions involved with 1MDB as part of “an international conspiracy to launder money.”

The documents allege that more than $3.5 billion was diverted by unnamed high-level Malaysian officials from 1MDB in three groups of transactions over several years using fraudulent documents and shell companies around the world.

A person familiar with the continuing probe said the number eventually may rise to as high as $6 billion when a full accounting is completed by authorities in multiple countries.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal investigation into money laundering and fraud also is ongoing in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the probe.

Wednesday’s move marks the single largest attempted asset seizure ever under the U.S. Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. It was set up in 2010 so “corrupt leaders cannot seek safe haven for their stolen wealth in the United States,” according to a State Department pamphlet.

President Barack Obama forged a relationship with Mr. Najib at a time of growing concern over China’s rise, and the two played golf together in Hawaii in 2014.

Wednesday’s action by U.S. authorities focused on assets purchased in the U.S. with the proceeds of alleged corruption.

As a result, it doesn’t seek to target any assets controlled by Mr. Najib, despite allegations by opposition politicians and people familiar with investigations in two countries that Mr. Najib received hundreds of millions of dollars in his personal bank accounts originating with 1MDB.

The complaint does allege that money from several transactions ended up in the accounts of Malaysian Official 1 from 2011 to 2013. The Journal has previously reported how more than $1 billion in total was transferred into Mr. Najib’s accounts during that period, citing bank transfer documents and people familiar with the matter.

Much of that money was transferred to offshore companies, according to bank-transfer documents reviewed by the Journal.

Mr. Najib and the Malaysian attorney general have said the money was a legal political donation from the Saudi royal family. The attorney general cleared Mr. Najib of wrongdoing and said most of the money was returned.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said he was aware of a donation in April but declined to provide any other details.

The complaints filed Wednesday allege that there were three major recipients of misappropriated funds: Jho Low, a businessman and confidant of Mr. Najib’s family involved in setting up 1MDB and its subsequent dealings; Riza Aziz, stepson of Mr. Najib and a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based film company Red Granite Pictures; and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi official whose sovereign-wealth fund was involved with 1MDB.

Wednesday’s lawsuits don’t seek to take action against any individuals, instead targeting only the property that government officials want to seize.

Mr. Aziz’s spokesman has said he has committed no wrongdoing. Mr. Al Qubaisi has declined to comment on several occasions through his lawyer. A lawyer for Mr. Low declined to comment.

Authorities in Switzerland and Singapore also have investigations into 1MDB. Both have brought sanctions against a private Swiss bank, BSI SA, that helped process many 1MDB-related transactions. BSI has said it is appealing.

Singapore prosecutors have called the 1MDB affair its largest-ever money-laundering probe.

Descriptions of the alleged frauds in the complaints raise questions for other institutions and people connected to the deals.

For instance, two of the alleged groups of transactions described by investigators relate to $6.5 billion in bonds Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised for 1MDB. The complaint says at least $2.5 billion of that money was misappropriated by high-level 1MDB officials, their relatives and other associates.

The FBI as well as several other U.S. regulators have been investigating the role of Goldman Sachs in those deals since last year, but the investigations are at an earlier stage, according to people familiar with the inquiries. The bank has declined to comment on ongoing investigations.

The U.S. government also alleges that 1MDB’s earliest deal, a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian company called PetroSaudi International Ltd., was used to siphon away at least $1 billion. PetroSaudi repeatedly has denied any wrongdoing and said 1MDB was fully compensated with profits for the investment.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were actually diverted and used to pay gambling debts at Las Vegas casinos and to pay for yacht and jet rentals and a London interior decorator, the filings say.

Mr. Low acquired a $44.8 million luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, a $35.4 million Bombardier jet, and $151.4 million worth of luxury homes in Southern California and New York, according to the filings in a California federal court.

Money diverted from two 2012 1MDB bond offerings was used to help finance the production of “The Wolf of Wall Street” and to pay for other real estate and gambling bills, according to the filings. A portion of a subsequent 1MDB bond offering in 2013 was used within days to finance Mr. Low’s purchases, including $130 million of art from auction houses in the U.S., the filings show.

Mr. Najib still enjoys solid support in parts of Malaysia, particularly rural areas dominated by the United Malays National Organization, which has led every Malaysian government since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957, making it one of the world’s longest-ruling political parties.

Mr. Najib’s political coalition won a state election in May and has tightened its grip on the media while detaining or purging critics who have questioned his stewardship of the 1MDB fund.

Still, he has come under intense pressure from Malaysia’s opposition over the past year, which has called for his resignation.

“The seizure of assets will further swell opposition against Prime Minister Najib Razak, and encourage collaboration among those seeking to remove him from power,” said Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a research center in Singapore. “It will also signal other countries looking into the activities of 1MDB to hasten their own investigations.”

—Celine Fernandez and Yantoultra Ngui contributed to this article.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 July 2016, 4:20 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.