The Rise and Fall of Tim Leissner, Goldman’s Big Man in Malaysia

Max Abelson/ Elffie Chew

Bloomberg

March 30, 2016

The prime minister of Malaysia had a message for the crowd at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco in September 2013. “We cannot have an egalitarian society — it’s impossible to have an egalitarian society,” Najib Razak said. “But certainly we can achieve a more equitable society.”

Tim Leissner, one of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s star bankers, enjoyed the festivities that night with model Kimora Lee Simmons, who’s now his wife. In snapshots she posted to Twitter, she’s sitting next to Najib’s wife, and then standing between him and Leissner. Everyone smiled.

The good times didn’t last. At least $681 million landed in the prime minister’s personal bank accounts that year, money his government has said was a gift from the Saudi royal family. The windfall triggered turmoil for him, investigations into the state fund he oversees and trouble for Goldman Sachs, which helped it raise $6.5 billion. Leissner, the firm’s Southeast Asia chairman, left last month after questions about the fund, his work on an Indonesian mining deal and an allegedly inaccurate reference letter.

Few corporations have mastered the mix of money and power like New York-based Goldman Sachs, whose alumni have become U.S. lawmakers, Treasury secretaries and central bankers. Leissner’s rise and fall shows how lucrative and fraught it can be when the bank exports that recipe worldwide.

In 2002, when the firm made him head of investment banking in Singapore, it had just cleaned up a mess there after offending powerful families.

It took only a few years before the networking maestro was helping the bank soar in Southeast Asia — culminating in billion-dollar deals with state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., also known as 1MDB. But if his links to the rich and powerful fueled his Goldman career, they also helped end it.

“He has to know a lot of people, that’s just the nature of the business,” said Gerry David, president of Celsius Holdings Inc., an energy-drink company that counts Leissner and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing as investors. “He’s the type of person that I would honestly tell you I would really want as a friend, a personal friend.”

Leissner’s lawyer, Jonathan Cogan, didn’t respond to messages. Edward Naylor, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.

Suckling Pigs

Proximity to power is so prized at Goldman Sachs that a former co-head wrote it into his commandments for the firm: “Important people like to deal with other important people. Are you one?” The answer from lanky, blue-eyed Leissner seemed clear from his earliest years at the firm. He joined in 1998 and then became chief of staff to Richard Gnodde, president of the bank’s Asia operations and now co-head of investment banking.

One colleague from that era said Leissner was the kind of banker who could hop in a canoe, paddle upstream and come back with a fee. That person, who asked not to be identified, said Leissner could dazzle in other ways: When he married Judy Chan, whose father ran a coal-mining business in China, the wedding feast included suckling pigs with electric lights flashing in their eye sockets.

The firm learned a lesson about how to handle itself around power in Singapore just before Leissner got a big break there in 2002. In a presentation for a client bidding to take over a bank, Goldman Sachs advisers said that a rival deal was designed to keep powerful families in control while ignoring public shareholders. Regulators and local bankers were offended by the bluntness. Hank Paulson, chief executive officer at the time, flew to Singapore for damage control.

Leissner became the firm’s local head of investment banking a few months later. The banker, whose father was a Volkswagen AG executive in Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War before stints in Mexico and China, graduated from Germany’s University of Siegen and got an MBA from the University of Hartford in Connecticut in 1992.

At a 2001 gathering of young Asian leaders, the program listed him as Dr. Leissner for his workshop “What would happen had Einstein joined Wall Street?” A biography he provided at another forum said he got a doctorate in business administration from Somerset University. A school with that name offered degrees for $995, a retired federal investigator told a U.S. congressional committee on education in 2004.

Malaysian Billionaires

Leissner’s contacts were more impressive. In May 2006, he was sitting onstage when the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary announced its takeover of power producer Malakoff Bhd., what it called “the largest acquisition ever undertaken in Malaysia.” Goldman Sachs was an adviser on the deal. That year, Leissner made partner.

The firm helped manage billionaire T. Ananda Krishnan’s 2009 initial public offering of Maxis Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest wireless operator.

Krishnan also controlled Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd., the largest pay-TV broadcaster, and Goldman Sachs was there when it went public, too.

Leissner was open about his ambition. The firm wanted to do more business in Malaysia, he said in an interview carried by a government news agency. That was before Najib became prime minister in 2009. By the end of that year, the nation’s securities commission cited the new leader’s “strategic shift” when it announced that Goldman’s application to start operations for fund management and corporate finance was approved.

That smoothed the way for the firm’s blockbuster deals with 1MDB, which began as an investment fund set up by oil-rich Terengganu state before Najib took it over. The government-owned entity attracted attention even in early days: Jho Low, a young dealmaker who advised the Terengganu Investment Authority and was a friend of Najib’s stepson, film producer Riza Aziz, popped up in tabloids celebrating in New York and St.-Tropez with Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and magnums of champagne.

Goldman Sachs, where Jho Low’s brother Szen had worked, hit it big, too. The firm made $593 million working on three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, dwarfing what banks typically make from government deals. Leissner was an adviser to the state fund from early on, according to a former colleague familiar with the bond sales.

“There’s no law against bankers meeting with heads of state,” Wong Chen, an opposition member of Malaysia’s parliament, said in an interview this month about Goldman Sachs’s relationship with 1MDB. “That’s a bit too cozy, a bit too overly generous.”

‘Large Requirements’

“There were large requirements and Goldman was one of the few firms, in fact the only firm, that could provide the solution that was required,” 1MDB President Arul Kanda said in an interview Wednesday at his office in Kuala Lumpur. “Overall the objectives were met.” He declined to comment specifically on Leissner.

The bank said last year that fees and commissions “reflected the underwriting risks assumed by Goldman Sachs.” A spokesman for Najib declined to comment for this story. Jho Low didn’t respond to e-mails.

Leissner became the firm’s Southeast Asia chairman in 2014. By then, he had met his current wife in business class on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur, with an argument in the beginning and a marriage proposal by the end, according to an interview they gave to a Wall Street Journal fashion columnist. She was previously married to Russell Simmons, who co-founded Def Jam Recordings.

His wife’s social-media accounts chronicle the couple’s jet-set life, from yachts in the Caribbean to Indonesia, where she thanked god for her police escort. The prime minister and his wife weren’t the only Malaysian leaders she mentioned: The queen, she said, was a fan. In 2014, Simmons told a reporter that one of her daughters wanted to be a banker and met Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

$681 Million

Anger about the Wall Street bank’s profit was overshadowed by controversy over whether the money 1MDB raised was spent as intended on local projects including a Kuala Lumpur financial center or siphoned off.

“I am not a thief,” Najib said last July, as investigators probed the hundreds of millions of dollars that were said to have shown up in his bank accounts.

Malaysia’s attorney general said in January that the prime minister got $681 million as a gift from Saudi Arabia’s royal family and returned $620 million. That month, Switzerland’s prosecutors asked for Malaysia’s help investigating 1MDB, saying they suspected $4 billion may have been misappropriated.

Goldman Sachs reviewed the deal too, finding no indication the firm or Leissner engaged in wrongdoing, two people familiar with the process said. Even so, the bank stepped up scrutiny of him after he worked with a group of investors last year trying to buy Newmont Mining Corp.’s Indonesian copper operations.

One of them, Sudjiono Timan, a former head of a government-owned brokerage convicted of corruption in 2004, created a problem. The firm told Leissner it wouldn’t move ahead if he was a sponsor, even though the conviction was overturned in 2013, two people familiar with the matter said.

Timan withdrew, but Goldman Sachs pulled out of the deal when it learned he was still an adviser, the people said. The bank then examined Leissner’s messages and found a reference letter he wrote that it said in a regulatory filing was “inaccurate and unauthorized.”

Gated Mansion

The firm put Leissner on leave in January, and he resigned soon after. U.S. investigators subpoenaed him in February over the 1MDB work. The government told him he’s not a target, according to one of the people.

Authorities are exploring whether Goldman Sachs misled 1MDB bondholders or broke anti-corruption laws, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Leissner recommended the firm hire the daughter of a close aide to Najib, according to the paper.

Goldman’s business in Malaysia, where it was one of the top banks four years ago, has fallen far. It ranked 17th for local mergers and acquisitions work last year, when it was credited with no equity or debt deals, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Leissner moved to Los Angeles. His exit from Goldman Sachs is an “opportunity to be back home with the family,” according to David, who promotes his energy-drink Celsius as a “negative calorie beverage.”

An attempt this month to reach Leissner or his wife via intercom at the black gate of an $11 million Beverly Hills mansion was unsuccessful. The 9,405-square-foot house, which has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a screening room, gym, tennis court and guest house, according to an old listing, is just north of Sunset Boulevard.

Last month, a few weeks after news broke that Leissner was on leave and in California, Najib returned to San Francisco. He was talking up his country, part of a tour called Invest Malaysia 2016.

“Under adverse conditions, we still perform pretty well,” the prime minister said. “We believe that performance can continue with policies that will not change.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, 4:27 pm and is filed under
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Two Abdulaziz – one Najib’s ‘donor’, other a convicted murderer

Malaysiakini

30th March 2016

Was one of the Saudi princes who allegedly put millions of US dollars into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts the former Madinah governor or a convicted murderer?

Such could be the question for some viewers of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) report on a letter purportedly from a Saudi royalty, telling Najib “to do as he pleases” with the generous donation the said prince supposedly donated, no strings attached, into the prime minister’s private bank accounts.

This is because the letterhead of that purported letter states that the missive is from the private office of “Saud Abdulaziz Majid al Saud” while the letter itself is supposedly signed by “HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”.

It should be noted that Prince Abdulaziz Majid is the grandson of the late King Abdulaziz – the first monarch of the House of Saud. He was the governor of the holy city of Madinah at the time the letter was dated, which is Nov 1, 2011.

Prince Abdulaziz Majid’s father is Prince Majid Abdulaziz, the son of King Abdulaziz.

However, confusion may arise if someone were to search for “Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud” or Prince Abdulaziz, as there is another Saudi prince of the same name who is a convicted murderer, and was serving a life sentence in the UK for the murder of his manservant at the time the letter was issued.

This prince, the one convicted of murder, is Prince Saud Abdulaziz Nasir Al-Saud, who has since been reportedly repatriated to the Middle Eastern kingdom to serve his sentence.

Of the two princely names, the difference is slight, but for their father’s names, they are almost the same.

Najib’s purportedly generous donor prince, as the letter in the ABC report supposedly shows, is Prince Abdulaziz Majid, who is Abdulaziz son of Majid.

While the Saudi prince who is a convicted killer serving a life sentence is Prince Abdulaziz Nasir, or Abdulaziz, the son of Nasir.

Several purported depositors

In any case, if what was reported by the ABC is true, Prince Abdulaziz Majid would be the second Saudi prince to have allegedly donated to Najib.

According to the ABC report, Prince Abdulaziz Majid allegedly made three deposits into Najib’s accounts in 2012, totalling US$120 million.

The other prince supposed to have donated to Najib, according to the report, is Prince Turki Faisal Al-Saud, who allegedly donated US$50 million in 2012 and US$700 million in 2013.

Other purported depositors into the PM’s accounts, as listed by the same report, include the Saudi Finance Ministry and SRC International chief executive and former 1MDB investment director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

Najib has admitted to receiving donations into his private accounts but has denied misappropriation of public funds, counter-claiming that such allegations are slander meant to cause his downfall.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has decided not to prosecute Najib on the matter, stating that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation papers into the RM2.6 billion and SRC monies did not show any culpability on the PM’s part.

Apandi went on to remind one and all that the power to prosecute or not is the sole constitutional prerogative of his office.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, 8:32 am and is filed under
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Will Mahathir and Anwar’s uneasy alliance unseat Najib?

Yang Razali Kassim

East Asia Forum

RSIS

22 March 2016

The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim have joined hands in a seemingly impossible alliance to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Never before in Malaysian history have such sworn enemies buried their hatchets for a common cause.

By launching his rainbow ‘core group’ of concerned citizens of various political stripes and leanings to ‘Save Malaysia’, Mahathir has once again thrust himself into the eye of the political storm. With Anwar still in jail, the disparate forces that opposed Najib over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investment fund scandal have finally found someone of stature to rally around in a marriage of convenience. It is ironic that the man who crushed the opposition while in power has reinvented himself in retirement as the de facto leader of what in essence is a citizens’ revolt.

Mahathir himself described this as a ‘very strange group of people’, brought together by a common goal of ousting the scandal-hit prime minister. By calling it a ‘core group’, Mahathir is indicating that this is only the beginning of more moves to come. What could emerge down the road is still hazy. But it is safe to say that a new era in Malaysian politics is unfolding with the key players jostling for a place in the shifting ground.

Broadly speaking, politics and the people have become polarised into two groups. The first is pro-Najib, anchored around the ruling party — the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Opponents within and outside UMNO are being crippled or threatened one-by-one. The second group is basically the rest — the anti-Najib forces comprising of nearly 50 of the country’s public luminaries.

As expected, Najib’s lieutenants have dismissed Mahathir’s latest strategy as leading nowhere. Some have even belittled Mahathir’s resignation from the UMNO — his second since he forced his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to resign in 2008 — as something of a joke. Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi has painted Mahathir’s move as unconstitutional. And UMNO Youth have challenged the Mahathir-led movement to become a formal coalition and challenge the UMNO-led ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) in a general election.

But any misplaced sense of confidence on the part of UMNO could backfire. Mahathir’s second quitting may indeed not amount to much within UMNO, given that Najib has got the party effectively button-holed. But it would be foolhardy to take lightly what the 90-year-old warhorse is now doing. It may well lead to big changes in Malaysian politics. Although the UMNO-led BN won control of parliament in the last general election, it actually lost the popular vote. The people’s confidence has shifted towards the then Anwar-led opposition.

Given Najib’s current scandals, which have been a lightning rod against UMNO, an election, if held today, could conceivably lead to the defeat of UMNO and the BN ruling coalition it leads. Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, the deposed chief minister of Kedah state, said as much, noting that ‘the opposition could easily win the next general election’. The opposition says it has thrown its support behind Mahathir in a shared sense of urgency to save the country before more damage is done.

Mahathir’s ‘core group’ could be variously described as having features of civil disobedience, a people’s power movement, even a de facto ‘new opposition’. Prior to its launch, there had been talk of similar and overlapping moves, such as Zaid Ibrahim’s initiative for a closed-door gathering of like minds on 27 March. There is also the plan by Wan Azizah, leader of the People’s Justice Party and Anwar’s wife, to convene national consensus talks. There is clearly a need for close coordination to avoid competing initiatives. Significantly, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party has not formally joined the anti-Najib alliance, although some of its leaders had supported Mahathir.

So if Mahathir and his citizens’ movement can maintain their current momentum and the opposition recovers from its disunity, UMNO and BN could be in deep trouble in the next election, which is to be called by 2018. Should that happen, pressure would mount leading to two possible outcomes. The first may trigger a nation-wide awakening that could transform into an anti-Najib groundswell. The second is to push UMNO into the excruciating position of having to decide whose survival is more critical — Najib’s or UMNO’s? In that event, a pre-emptive move for a leadership change may become too tempting in order to avoid impending electoral defeat.

And, if this trajectory holds, UMNO may be forced to explore two other options: vote Najib out, or craft unconventional strategies — such as allowing Najib to step down voluntarily. Face-saving compromises and ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions should not be ruled out, given the wide-ranging repercussions of potential political instability.

Yang Razali Kassim is a Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, 12:48 am and is filed under
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De factor Law Minister Nancy Shukri is absolutely wrong about the AG’s “absolute” powers and discretion!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 March 2016, 4:29 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia dalam bahaya, Baju Merah jangan buang masa

oleh Edry Faizal Eddy Yusof

31 Mac 2016

Roketkini.com

Tengah hari tadi, kumpulan yang menggelarkan diri mereka Gerakan Baju Merah 1Malaysia yang diketuai Ali Tinju telah datang ke Ibupejabat DAP untuk menyerahkan satu memorandum. Saya telah diamanahkan menerima memorandum itu mewakili Ibupejabat DAP dan parti.

Melihat pertemuan ini merupakan peluang untuk mengajak pihak Gerakan Baju Merah agar melakukan sesuatu yang manfaatnya jauh lebih besar demi kebaikan rakyat kebanyakan, saya membawa bersama saya satu memorandum untuk diserahkan kepada Gerakan Baju Merah melalui Ali Tinju.

Memorandum saya itu bertujuan mengajak Gerakan Baju Merah untuk melihat permasalahan negara ini dari sudut pandang yang lebih luas. Selain memahami bahaya yang sedang mengancam negara ini.

Di bawah adalah kandungan memorandum saya itu:

31 Mac 2016

Memorandum Kepada Gerakan Merah Untuk Bersama-Sama Selamatkan Malaysia

Keadaan politik, ekonomi dan masyarakat Malaysia sedang tenat. Hal ini bukan sahaja difahami dan dirasai oleh watak-watak utama politik, tetapi turut menghantui kebanyakan rakyat negara tercinta ini. Keluh resah rakyat boleh didengar dari segenap peringkat. Malah melangkui sempadan usia, kaum, kepercayaan, tempat, parti dan kecenderungan politik.

Tanpa sedikit pun berganjak dari kepercayaan bahawa sistem politik sekarang yang merosakkan perlu melalui reformasi menyeluruh, kita tidak boleh menutup mata daripada hakikat bahawa sistem politik itu ada penggeraknya. Penggerak yang akan terus mempergunakan sistem politik sedia ada dengan lebih dahsyat dan melampau serta menjadi penghalang paling besar kepada usaha-usaha memperbaiki keadaan Malaysia. Selagi tidak dialihkan penghalang paling besar itu, sebarang usaha adalah ibarat membandarkan air ke bukit, sia-sia tiada berguna.

Penggerak yang dimaksudkan tidak lain adalah Perdana Menteri Malaysia pada ketika ini, Najib Razak dan konco-konconya.

Najib Razak bertanggungjawab ke atas skandal 1MDB yang menjejaskan imej negara, pengurusan ekonomi yang buruk, sekatan demi sekatan terhadap suara yang membantah, cubaan memusatkan kuasa kepada dirinya melalui penggubalan Akta Keselamatan dan kelibat salahguna kuasa demi menyelamatkan kedudukannya.

Malaysia sedang menyusuri jalan menuju ke arah negara gagal (failed state). Oleh itu, sepatutnya setiap rakyat tidak kira parti, kaum, kepercayaan, tempat asal dan kecenderungan politik merapatkan barisan perjuangan atas dasar kebersamaan, untuk menyelamatkan Malaysia.

Sekiranya terdapat ancaman luar yang mahu memusnahkan negara ini, tentu semua pihak akan berganding bahu menghadapinya. Maka adalah patut untuk kita turut berganding bahu menyelamatkan Malaysia dari ancaman dalaman yang bakal memusnahkan negara ini.

Oleh itu saya menuntut kepada Gerakan Merah untuk:

1. Bersama-sama menyertai GERAKAN SELAMATKAN MALAYSIA sebagai usaha menyelamatkan Malaysia daripada keadaan yang semakin membimbangkan, berpunca dari apa yang telah disebutkan di atas.

2. Bersama-sama menandatangani DEKLARASI RAKYAT sebagai tanda solidariti.

EDRY FAIZAL EDDY YUSOF

Ahli Jawatankuasa DAP Selangor

Ketua Sosialis Muda (DAPSY) Subang

Pengerusi DAP Bandar Utama

Malangnya Gerakan Baju Merah bukan saja tidak membaca memorandum yang diserahkan kepada mereka, malah terus memijak memorandum tersebut dengan marahnya. Malah tindakan provokasi mereka sudah bermula apabila menolak untuk menyerahkan memorandum mereka kepada saya hanya kerana saya berketurunan Melayu. Apakah yang sedang bermain di dalam otak mereka? Sekadar mahu cetus provokasi kaum?

Dalam mereka melaungkan seruan dengan sentimen Melayu seolah-olah mereka sedang perjuangkan nasib orang Melayu, mereka gagal melihat gambaran lebih besar, bahawa sekiranya negara ini menjunam menuju negara gagal (failed state), tiada sesiapa terkecuali. Tidak ada kaum tertentu yang boleh terselamat dari menjadi mangsa baik Melayu, Cina, India, Iban, Kadazan atau Malanau.

Adakah Gerakan Baju Merah sememangnya tidak berminat dengan hal penting sebegini?

Atau sebenarnya mereka bersama pihak yang sedang merosakkan negara dan apa mereka lakukan hari ini hanya cubaan mengalihkan perhatian rakyat Malaysia daripada menyedari bahaya-bahaya yang mendatang?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 March 2016, 7:01 pm and is filed under
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Najib government in two minds over ABC  Four Corners’ documentary “State of Fear: Money and Murder in Malaysia”

The Najib government is clearly in two minds over the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Four Corners’ documentary
“State of Fear: Money and Murder in Malaysia”
 aired on Monday and widely shared on the Internet.

The first response to the ABC programme was from the Prime Minister’s Office, which said that the Four Corners documentary had confirmed the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri  Najib Razak’s statement and the findings of Malaysian authorities that the money deposited into his personal accounts was a donation from a Saudi royalty.

“The investigations included forensic examination of every wire transfer,” said a government spokesperson in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday.

“Malaysian authorities also travelled to Saudi Arabia to examine documentation and interview members of the royal family, and the officials who administered the donation.

“As the leaked letter from Saudi Arabia states, the donation was a gift to the prime minister for promoting moderate Islam, and his leadership in combatting terrorism and extremism – such as by launching his Global Movement of Moderates initiative.

“The letter makes clear the gift was to be used as the prime minister saw fit; would be transferred directly or through the donor’s companies; and no benefit was expected in return.”

Journalist with Australian ‘Four Corner’s’ programme Linton Besser has dismissed speculations that a letter from Saudi prince Saud Abdulaziz Majid to Najib was planted by Putrajaya to exonerate the Prime Minister.

When contacted by Malaysiakini, Besser  called  such claims preposterous and stressed that the letter did not exonerate anyone.

Besser said: “If anything, it raises further and more difficult questions. The remittances we reported were associated with the letter pledging the money came from an altogether different person, from the personal accounts of someone calling themselves Prince Faisal bin Turki bin Bandar Alsaud.

“Meanwhile, who is this HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud? And crucially, who is behind Tanore Finance and Blackstone? None of these questions has been answered.”

A few hours after the Prime Minister’s Office statement, the Foreign Ministry issued a separate statement that the ABC Four Corners programme was “one-sided” in attacking the accountability of the Prime Minister and the government system.

It said that while  many official statements by the government of Malaysia towards the allegation had been produced to clarify the issue, the clarifications had been conveniently ignored and had resulted in biased reporting.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had also a different take on the ABC Four Corners documentary, accusing it as “retaliation” and “actually vindictive” because of the  arrests of the two ABC reporters in Sarawak.

Khalid said  that the Four Corners show had deliberately attempted to link Najib to the murder of AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najidi and Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Morais out of vengeance, in a bid to tarnish the prime minister’s image.

The Najib government must make up its mind on  the ABC Four Corners documentary, instead of coming out with conflicting positions.

Ever since the beginning of this year, Najib had been declaring that  his twin mega scandals were no more issues as they had been “resolved”.

In a way, Najib is right, as his RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal is no more an issue as it has been replaced by  an even bigger RM4.2 billion donation scandal.

Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal has become history, and we should now talk about Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” scandal!

It is sad that Malaysians have to piece together from various bits and pieces of information  in the public domain to get a handle of the scale and  monstrosity of Najib’s twin mega scandals, as the Prime Minister and his Ministerial cohorts in Parliament have simply refused to give a proper, full and satisfactory accounting about the twin mega scandals even in Parliament.

The  Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 45-minute Four Corners’ documentary has  helped many Malaysians to realize that there were actually three separate tranches of deposits into Najib’s personal banking accounts at AmBank,  pre the RM2.6 billion donations, the RM2.6 billion donations itself and post-RM2.6 billion donations, viz:

(i)	some US$300 million from 2011 to March 2013;

(ii)	two transactions in March 2013 totalling US$681 (the often-reported RM2.6 billion political donation) – bringing the total deposited into Najib’s accounts to US$1.03 billion (RM4.14 billion) by April 10, 2013, just over a month prior to the 13th General Election; and

(iii)	deposits of  £50 million (RM285 million) as well as “a series of cash deposits” in June 2014 and after.

Najib had never contradicted these facts and figures, elevating Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal into at least  RM4.2 billion “donation” scandal.

Is Najib now confirming that a total of at least RM4.2 billion “donation” had been deposited into his personal banking accounts since 2011?

The 1MDB scandal is no less perplexing.

According to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his last speech as Deputy Prime Minister on July 26 last year, the total 1MDB debts were more than RM50 billion. By November last year, before the start of the “rationalisation” of 1MDB with the sale of Edra to China General Nuclear Power Corp Ltd. (CGN), the total 1MDB debts could have reached RM55 billion.

Why is Najib and 1MDB so shy in revealing 1MDB’s latest total debts before sale of Edra to CGN at the end of November?

The oft-mentioned  RM42 billion figure is not the latest update figure, as it represents 1MDB’s total debts as at the end of March 2014 – 1MDB’s last audited accounts – and not in November 2015.

So have Najib’s twin mega scandals been grossly underestimated when they are close to RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion donation scandals?

Malaysia has indeed become a most extraordinary country, with the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government regarding Najib’s twin mega scandals as “no problems” which cannot even be debated intelligently and fruitfully in  Parliament, while 30 million Malaysians and the world regard them as the top issues and scandals in the country.

This is an indictment of the Najib premiership on its government system, particularly on  the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.

Najib’s twin mega scandals are responsible for Malaysia being regarded as the top ten countries notorious for “Grand Corruption”, netting for Malaysia the  infamous third-ranking mention  in website  ForeignPolicy’s “world’s worst  corruption scandals in 2015” and a second-place mention in the recent Time magazine listing of  five countries notorious for “global corruption”.

Even more shameful, Najib is subject of investigations by United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative over the twin mega scandals.

Najib should take a courageous decision to give a full report to the current Parliament on the twin mega scandals which had been hounding and haunting the country for the past two years especially as nobody expects anything to emerge from the Public Accounts Committee after the appointment of a “cari makan” Chairman.

Najib should present a White Paper on his twin mega scandals to Parliament and slot the last two days of Parliament next Wednesday and Thursday for a full parliamentary debate on two scandals which had infamously catapulted to the top of the world for global corruption.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 March 2016, 8:48 am and is filed under
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President of Malaysia’s Embattled 1MDB Says My Job Is Done Here

Shamim Adam/Laura Zelenko

Bloomberg

March 31, 2016

Former investment banker Arul Kanda took a job in Malaysia last year and walked into the crossfire of the country’s biggest political crisis since Prime Minister Najib Razak came to power in 2009.

Now, even as the finances of 1Malaysia Development Bhd. are being investigated in at least three countries, Kanda, president of the government-linked fund, says his job sorting out the organization is done.

“I only signed up for one-third of what I ended up doing,” he said in an interview on Wednesday at the fund’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. “I did not sign up for the investigations because that happened after I joined, and I definitely didn’t sign up for the extent of the comms-slash-politics that I had to deal with.”

Kanda was brought in in January 2015 when the debt-ridden fund was teetering on the edge of default. Within months the company became embroiled in allegations of financial irregularities that sparked probes in Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland. 1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Najib, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Kanda echoes statements by Najib and other government officials that the allegations are unfounded and politically motivated. He said 1MDB hasn’t been contacted by any foreign legal authorities to help with investigations.

‘Politicized’ Allegations

“The misunderstandings about 1MDB stem from the fact that what was a business problem became politicized and became a tool by the opposition or those not aligned with the government to topple a democratically-elected prime minister and government,” he said. “That’s the reality of it.”

He says his job was to turn 1MDB around and sort out its debt.

“From my perspective, I’m done,” said Kanda, a trained lawyer. “Everything’s signed. Legal agreements are there, they’re binding. I’m leaving the company” with available funds, he said.

1MDB will repay 6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) in the next three weeks, leaving it free of short-term debt and bank loans and with at least 2.3 billion ringgit in the bank, Kanda said. It announced last week the settlement of a 700 million ringgit syndicated term loan. 1MDB will also sign a term sheet for the development of its land parcel in the state of Penang in about two weeks, he said.

“We don’t need any money from our shareholders to get us to 2039” when the last bonds are due, said Kanda, who signed up for a three-year term at the fund. “There is no bailout of 1MDB.”

Set up by the government in 2009 to build infrastructure with borrowed money, 1MDB amassed about 42 billion ringgit of debt in less than five years, largely from assets in the energy sector.

It started facing cash-flow problems in 2014 after a planned initial public offering of energy unit Edra Global Energy was delayed by an unfavorable market. Kanda raised money to pay the debt by selling assets including Edra, which was bought by China General Nuclear Power Corp. for 9.83 billion ringgit.

Financial District

Kanda said 1MDB will retain land and assets that will allow it to pay off outstanding bonds. They include the 70-acre Tun Razak Exchange financial district, or TRX, in downtown Kuala Lumpur, named after Najib’s father.

“Why don’t I want to sell it off today and pay off the debt? Because I think it’s going to be worth more over time.”

1MDB’s 2023 notes traded on Wednesday at a level last seen in April 2015, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices. Investors would have gained 30 percent if they’d bought the securities at their lowest point of 71.6 cents on Oct. 2. The bonds were sold at par of 100 cents in March 2013 in a deal arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and rated at A- or four levels above junk by Standard & Poor’s.

Critics questioned Goldman’s earnings from arranging bond sales for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013. Goldman made about $593 million from three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, dwarfing what banks typically make from government deals. Tim Leissner, then Goldman’s Southeast Asia chairman, was an adviser to the state fund from early on, according to a former colleague familiar with the bond sales.

“There were large requirements and Goldman was one of the few firms, in fact the only firm, that could provide the solution that was required,” Kanda said. “Overall the objectives were met.”

Saudi ‘Donation’

Leissner left Goldman earlier this year after questions about the fund, his work on an Indonesian mining deal and an allegedly inaccurate reference letter. Leissner’s lawyer, Jonathan Cogan, didn’t respond to messages. Goldman has previously defended the Malaysia fees as representing its underwriting risks and market conditions at the time.

Still, even after 1MDB pares its assets and debts, allegations may continue to dog Najib as questions linger over $681 million which appeared in his personal accounts before the last election in 2013. Malaysia’s attorney-general said the funds were a donation from the Saudi royal family and has cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing.

The central bank said in October its probe of 1MDB found inaccurate disclosures by the company when it sought approvals for investments abroad, prompting the regulator to revoke the permissions given and instructing the repatriation of more than $1.8 billion related to multiple deals. It also proposed criminal proceedings against 1MDB, something the attorney general dismissed as it concluded there was no wrongdoing.

This month, former premier Mahathir Mohamad filed a lawsuit against Najib, alleging he “actively and deliberately” sought to derail investigations by local agencies into 1MDB, according to a statement by Mahathir’s lawyers. Najib has denied the allegations.

For his part, Kanda says he’s done what he was asked to do.

“My job is to come in, identify the problem, put together the solution, herd” people to stay focused, he said, “I’ve done it, now I need to move on.”

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Barisan Nasional wants to eliminate  Guan Eng as an  effective campaigner in Sarawak general election with the  high-powered two-week attack alleging corruption in his purchase of  RM2.8 million bungalow

The Sarawak State Assembly will be dissolved on April 11 and the 12th Sarawak state general elections to elect 82 State Assemblymen and women should be held by May Day or thereabouts.

For the first time in Sarawak’s 53-year history in Malaysia, what happens on Sarawak polling day is not just about Sarawak, for example,  how  big will be Chief Minister Datuk Adenan Satem’s majority in the new State Assembly, but even more important, how it will affect Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s tenure as sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia and his ability to deflect or to continue to disregard the national and international furore over his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

In fact, the forthcoming Sarawak State General Elections is even more important to Najib than to Adenan in determining the fate of the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Today also marks the fortnight of unprecedented high-powered UMNO/BN assaults on DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng alleging corruption in his purchase of RM2.8 million bungalow.

One of the objectives of such an onslaught on Guan Eng is to eliminate him as an effective campaigner for the DAP and Pakatan Harapan in the Sarawak state general elections.

There are other objectives in the scurrilous and incendiary attacks on Guan Eng, many constructed from half-truths, lies and downright falsehoods, and these include the design to:

•	Deflect attention from national and international focus on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals;

•	Undermine the “Save Malaysia” campaign launched by the Citizens’ Declaration in Kuala Lumpur on March 4, 2016;

•	Discredit the Penang Chief Minister and the  Pakatan Harapan Penang State Government so that Barisan Nasional can win back the Penang State Government in the 14GE.

•	Disrupt, disintegrate and destroy the DAP, which UMNO/BN regards as the most united and cohesive Opposition political force against Umno/BN.

Although Najib and his strategists have been trying their level best to sweep Najib’s twin mega scandals under the carpet, with the Prime Minister using his 2016 New Year Eve Message to declare that his twin mega scandals were no more issues in the country as they had been resolved, the twin mega scandals have refused to disappear from the public domain.

The Najib government had been fairly successful in putting the lid on the twin mega scandals inside the country, and the latest example is the note which the Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia  sent to all Members of Parliament today imposing a blanket ban in Parliament on all reference to Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal on the ground of sub judice despite his earlier ruling that he will not impose a “blanket ban” but would decide  on a case-by-case basis whether the sub judice  rule applies.

At the rate things are going, one day, any reference to Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation scandal in Malaysia may even be considered as  an offence of sedition and liable to prosecution under the catch-all Sedition Act.

Unfortunately for Najib and his minders, the twin mega scandals cannot be confined within the borders of Malaysia, as it is a classic example of “global corruption”, with independent investigations  launched by over a dozen countries, frequent reports in international media rocking the country and the world with new exposes about the twin mega scandals –  precisely why Najib’s twin mega scandals have catapulted Malaysia to the top 10 countries  with the worst corruption scandals in the world.

Malaysiakini has just reported that Luxembourg’s state prosecutor has launched a judicial inquiry into allegations of money-laundering, covering payments totaling hundreds of millions of US dollars, against 1MDB.

The Reuters report quoted the Luxembourg prosecutor that the inquiry followed evidence that funds held by the Malaysian government in offshore accounts in Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg had been misused.

The investigation aims to trace the origin of four transfers in 2012 and one at the start of 2013 for a total of several hundred millions of dollars, connected with the issue of t6wo bonds in May and October 2012.

There are also foreign news reports that the first arrest in connection with the world-wide investigations into 1MDB had been initiated.

With such an international backdrop, in an Internet era and global society where information travels at the speed of light, it is impossible to impose a “cordon sanitaire” on the borders of Malaysia to stop the spread of information about Najib’s twin mega scandals.

The most effective, professional and responsible response is for Najib to come full and clean to give satisfactory accounting on the two mega scandals, and not to try the impossible of a modern-day version of Canute to stop the tides from rising.

Deflection of national and international attention from Najib’s twin mega scandals is only one of the many  objectives of the two-week assault and  hounding of Guan Eng.

The hour-long appearance of the Barisan Nasional Strategic Media Communications Director and Housing Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul  Rahman Dahlan on TV3 on Wednesday night is not about the Housing Minister throwing more light (which he did not) on BN allegations of corruption over Guan Eng’s RM2.8 million bungalow purchase, but to pave the way for UMNO/BN to recapture the Penang State Government in the 14th General Election.

The objective is tied to the overall UMNO/BN objective to cause disruption and disintegration, if not to destroy, the DAP which UMNO/BN leaders and strategists regard as the most united and cohesive Opposition political force against them.

This is why for the past two years, some 20 DAP national leaders and elected representatives, whether Member of Parliament or State Assemblymen, had been in the cross-hair of UMNO/BN political attacks and offensives.

Guan Eng is now under siege by scurrilous and incendiary attacks in the UMNO/BN allegations of corruption for his RM2.8 million bungalow, calculated to reduce his effectiveness as DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister.

I had been questioned by the police and expect to me charged in court under the Sedition Act.

Even Gobind Singh Deo, head of DAP legal bureau, is himself under police investigations for variety of offences, including criminal defamation.

Others DAP leaders who have been in the  cross-hair of UMNO/BN attacks and offensives –  charged in court or likely to be prosecuted and persecuted – include DAP National Vice Chairman Teresa Kok, DAP National Vice Chairman and Sarawak State Chairman, Chong Chien Jen,  DAP National Organising Secretary Anthony Loke, DAP Publicity Secretary Tony Pua, DAP Asst National Publicity Secretary Teo Nie Ching,  DAP Members of Parliament Ng Wei Aik, Nga Kor Ming, Ngeh Koo Ham, Dr. Ko Chung Seng, Thomas Su, Teoh Kok Seong, Oscar Ling, Julian Tan, Penang Exco Members  Chong Eng and Phee Boon Poh, DAP Penang State Assemblyman R.S. Rayer, Johore Assembly persons Liow Cai Tung and Cheo Yee How, among others.

DAP leaders, members and supporters must foil the multi-prong objectives of the UMNO/BN offensive centred currently on the attack on Guan Eng to eliminate him as an effective campaigner for DAP and Pakatan Harapan in the Sarawak state general elections, and to prove UMNO/BN wrong in all their nefarious political designs and conspiracies.

(Speech to joint meeting of Federal Territory/Selangor DAP state and branch leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 31st March 2016 at 9 pm)

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Luxembourg Prosecutors Look for Embezzlement at Malaysia’s 1MDB

by Stephanie Bodoni/Shamim Adam

Bloomberg

March 31, 2016

Authorities in Luxembourg and Singapore are investigating transactions involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd. as the Malaysian state fund faces expanding probes into allegations of embezzlement and money laundering.

Prosecutors in Luxembourg said they started an investigation of 1MDB, as the fund is known, after finding “concrete clues” of embezzlement from companies owned by the fund via accounts in Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg. In response to questions about 1MDB, the Singapore central bank said it is conducting a “thorough review of various transactions as well as fund flows” through its banking system.

“The alleged facts concern in particular the amounts paid during the issuance of two bonds in May and October 2012,” Luxembourgish prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement. They will seek to “retrace the origin of four transfers during 2012 and one transfer in early 2013 for a total of several hundred million dollars, to an offshore company with an account in a bank in” Luxembourg.

Global Investigations

From Malaysia to Switzerland to the U.S., investigators have been trying to trace whether money might have flowed out of 1MDB and illegally into personal accounts. The government called the accusations politically motivated even as authorities outside Malaysia press ahead with inquiries.

1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, has denied wrongdoing. 1MDB said Thursday that it has not been contacted by any foreign legal authorities on any matters related to the company, repeating comments made a day earlier by its president, Arul Kanda.

“We remain committed to fully cooperating with any lawful authority and investigation,” 1MDB said in the statement.

1MDB issued two dollar bonds totaling $3.5 billion in May and October 2012 to fund the acquisition of Malaysian power assets. Both were solely arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Critics have questioned Goldman’s earnings from arranging bond sales for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013. Goldman made about $593 million from three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, dwarfing what banks typically make from government deals.

Tim Leissner, then Goldman’s Southeast Asia chairman, was an adviser to 1MDB from early on, according to a former colleague familiar with the bond sales. U.S. authorities are now turning to Leissner for information. He was issued a subpoena in late February, according to three people briefed on the matter, just days after Goldman confirmed he had left the firm.

The bank said last year that fees and commissions “reflected the underwriting risks assumed by Goldman Sachs.”

Singapore Review

In Singapore, the MAS asked several financial institutions for information related to its review of fund flows, according to an e-mailed statement. The central bank said it was working with authorities in other financial centers.

“Besides any enforcement actions by the relevant authorities in Singapore for possible violations of our laws, MAS will not hesitate to take regulatory actions against financial institutions should they be found to have breached our banking rules,” it said in the statement. “MAS will provide more details when we have completed our review.’’

Set up by the government in 2009 to build infrastructure with borrowed money, 1MDB amassed about 42 billion ringgit ($10.8 billion) of debt in less than five years, largely from assets in the energy sector. Its borrowings clouded the sovereign credit rating, weighing on the government’s contingent liabilities. The government said on Thursday that 1MDB’s finances won’t affect its fiscal policy.

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Malaysia’s reputation at stake

The Australian

APRIL 1, 2016

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is doing neither himself nor the standing of his country any good by being so obdurate over the corruption charges that have been levelled against him. Lashing out at media (specifically Australian journalists) over reporting of the scandal and threatening members of the Malaysian Bar who have been critical of him with prosecution under draconian, colonial era sedition laws heighten concerns about his authoritarian government.

Mr Najib’s refusal to discuss, much less provide a credible explanation for, the $1 billion linked to the debt-laden sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad that landed in his personal bank accounts is unhelpful. He should realise that even in countries that are major regional economic and strategic partners such as Australia — which long has been strongly linked to Kuala Lumpur through the Five Power Defence Arrangements and was closely allied with it in helping in the aftermath of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 and MH17 disasters — there is deepening concern about the fallout from the scandal. The US, too, is showing signs of dismay.

In 2014 Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Malaysia since Lyndon Johnson in 1966. Washington has been working to establish a new strategic relationship with Mr Najib as a moderate Islamic counterweight to Chinese regional encroachments and Islamist advances. It has been left with no alternative, however, but to join the chorus of questioning over Mr Najib’s actions in trying to curtail coverage of the scandal by blocking access to media websites. It has warned Malaysia to fully respect the right to freedom of expression.

Mr Najib is foolish to think clamping down on critics is the answer. His one-time mentor, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, is right when he says “merely having” the money that went into the Prime Minister’s account “is wrong”. He is also right when he adds that “no wonder Malaysia is included in the 10 most corrupt countries in the world”. Mr Najib has denied any wrongdoing but must do more to restore public confidence.

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1MDB Probe Shows Malaysian Leader Najib Spent Millions on Luxury Goods

By TOM WRIGHT and  BRADLEY HOPE

Wall Street Journal

March 30, 2016

Accounts of prime minister paid out $15 million for clothes, jewelry and a car

HONOLULU, Hawaii—On Christmas Eve 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stepped onto Hawaii’s 18-hole Kaneohe Klipper course for a round of golf diplomacy with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Off the fairways, another side of Mr. Najib’s time in office was on display. Two days earlier, the prime minister’s credit card was charged $130,625 to Chanel in Honolulu, according to Malaysian investigation documents. A person who works at a Chanel store in the upscale Ala Moana Center recalls Mr. Najib’s wife shopping there just before Christmas.

The credit card was paid from one of several private bank accounts owned by Mr. Najib that global investigators believe received hundreds of millions of dollars diverted from a government investment fund set up by the prime minister in 2009. The fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, today is at the center of corruption probes by authorities in Malaysia and at least five other nations.

The Malaysian investigation documents, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, contain bank-transfer information that provides the most complete picture to date of the money that flowed through the prime minister’s accounts over a five-year period, the majority of it, investigators say, originating from 1MDB.

They show for the first time how some of the money in Mr. Najib’s accounts allegedly was used for personal expenses. That included $15 million in spending on clothes, jewelry and a car, according to the bank-transfer information, involving stores in the U.S., Malaysia, Italy and elsewhere.

The disclosures appear to undermine key claims Mr. Najib and his allies have made in his defense, including that none of the money went toward personal expenses. They also detail how Mr. Najib used the funds to operate a large political machine, with money flowing from his accounts to politicians, think tanks and lawyers during a close election in 2013.

Mr. Najib, who was seen by Washington as a liberal, Western-friendly leader when he first came into power in 2009, didn’t respond to requests for comment. He has strenuously denied wrongdoing.

A lawyer for Mr. Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, declined to comment. The 1MDB fund also didn’t respond to questions. It has denied sending money to Mr. Najib’s accounts or other wrongdoing and said it is cooperating with probes.

In all, the documents show over $1 billion entered five accounts belonging to Mr. Najib at AmBank Bhd., a Malaysian bank, between 2011 and 2015.

As previously reported, $681 million was transferred via a web of entities in March 2013, money which investigators in two countries believe originated with 1MDB, the government fund. Malaysian investigators believe another set of transfers in 2014 and 2015, totaling $25 million, came from an entity known as SRC International Bhd., a company that originally was controlled by 1MDB but was transferred to the Finance Ministry in 2012. Mr. Najib also is the finance minister.

After the Journal first reported those transfers last July, Mr. Najib wrote a post on Facebook saying: “Let me be very clear: I have never taken funds for personal gain as alleged by my political opponents—whether from 1MDB, SRC International or other entities, as these companies have confirmed.”

Malaysia’s attorney general in January cleared Mr. Najib of wrongdoing, saying $681 million that entered his accounts in 2013 was a legal donation from the Saudi royal family, and that most of it was returned. Mr. Najib’s defenders have said any money spent in Malaysia went for political purposes, which they say is permissible.

Malaysian authorities haven’t commented on the other money alleged to have entered Mr. Najib’s accounts.

The latest Malaysian investigation documents reviewed by the Journal contradict the attorney general’s account. They show transfers from a person in Saudi Arabia and from the country’s finance ministry, but they occurred earlier, in 2011 and 2012, and are of smaller amounts, totaling $200 million. The finance ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The documents show the prime minister made more than 500 payments from his accounts, the bulk of them to political players. Tens of millions of dollars of such payments occurred ahead of the May 2013 elections, which Mr. Najib’s party risked losing for the first time since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957.

The payments from the prime minister’s accounts at this time included nearly $7 million to the private account of one of Mr. Najib’s four brothers, who is chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., a government-controlled bank.

Nazir Razak, the brother, confirmed to the Journal in a written statement he received the money, which he said was disbursed by bank staff to ruling-party politicians according to the instructions of party leaders.

He said he believed the money originated with donations he had helped raise from Malaysian corporations and individuals for the elections.

“I had no knowledge whatsoever that these funds may have originated from any other source(s),” he said. “The entire amount was paid out in cash to various recipients according to the instructions of the party president and the account was closed with a zero balance.”

A spokeswoman for CIMB declined to comment.

Another transfer of almost $70,000, on July 4, 2014, went to the prime minister’s son, Nor Ashman Najib, according to the documents. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

The money flowing to Mr. Najib’s account is only part of a much larger amount that investigators believe was misappropriated from 1MDB, which raised over $11 billion in debt, much of it from global investors. Swiss authorities, who along with the U.S., Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Singapore are probing the fund, say 1MDB-related losses from misappropriation could reach $4 billion.

Several investigations by Malaysia’s central bank, a parliamentary committee, the country’s auditor general, Malaysia’s antigraft agency and police, are continuing.

The Malaysian investigation documents show that around $170 million entered the prime minister’s accounts from other offshore companies set up to look like bona-fide financial giants such as Blackstone Group LP.

Investigators in two countries are probing the origin of the money that came from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners, a British Virgin Islands company, and whether any of it also originated from 1MDB.

A spokeswoman for Blackstone Group said the U.S. company had no knowledge of this offshore entity.

A report on Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Four Corners program said that some of the money transfers into Mr. Najib’s accounts triggered internal money-laundering alarms inside AmBank. The bank didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Some $44 million from Mr. Najib’s accounts was recorded as going to a company called Solar Shine Bhd. The firm was used by the ruling party to distribute small handouts like food and stationery to voters around elections, according to newspaper reports and a person familiar with the matter. Ruling-party organizations and think-tanks got large amounts, according to the documents.

Attempts to locate Solar Shine weren’t successful.

Of the apparent personal spending, one of the most regular recipients of funds from Mr. Najib’s accounts was Jakel Trading Bhd., a Malaysian luxury clothing retailer. Between 2011 and 2014, Mr. Najib transferred over $14 million to Jakel, according to the documents. The company specializes in traditional Malay formal wear, suits, wedding attire and home furnishings.

Attempts to reach Jakel weren’t successful.

There was a recorded expenditure on June 28, 2011, at Signature Exotic Cars, a car dealership in Kuala Lumpur, for $56,000. Signature’s managing director, Daniel Lim, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Najib’s credit card also incurred charges of €750,000 in August 2014 at an Italian branch of De Grisogono, a Swiss-owned jewelry store, again being financed from the same account as the expenses in Hawaii, according to bank-transfer information that forms part of the Malaysian government probe.

A person who works for De Grisogono confirmed Ms. Rosmah, the prime minister’s wife, was a client of a branch of the jewelers in Porto Cervo, a tony Sardinian resort. De Grisogono declined to comment.

She joined Mr. Najib for his 2014 trip to Hawaii, where Mr. Obama was vacationing, which was supposed to help cement Malaysia’s growing role on a global stage.

The transaction in the Chanel store was paid for with a Visa card in Mr. Najib’s name, according to the Malaysian investigation documents. At first the transaction didn’t go through and Mr. Najib, who was present, had to call his bank to approve the charge, said one of the people aware of the shopping trip.

A spokeswoman for Chanel declined to comment, citing customer privacy.

The credit card was paid for by an account in Mr. Najib’s name, the documents show. That account had been credited with $9 million a few months earlier. The money came from SRC International, the former unit of 1MDB that is now part of the finance ministry, according to documents that form part of an investigation into 1MDB by Malaysia’s anticorruption body.

On the day Mr. Najib played golf with Mr. Obama, SRC International transferred a further $9 million to the account via 1MDB’s corporate social responsibility arm. The money arrived the day after Christmas.

—Giada Zampano, Manuela Mesco and Ahmed Al Omran contributed to this article.

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Authorities Investigating Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Focusing on Bond Proceeds

BRADLEY HOPE in New York, SIMON CLARK in London and YANTOULTRA NGUI in Kuala Lumpur

Wall Street Journal

April 1, 2016

Investigators in three countries studying trail of cash from Malaysia to Abu Dhabi, offshore bank accounts

Authorities in three countries investigating a Malaysian government investment fund appear to be focusing on what happened to the proceeds of $3.5 billion in bonds sold by the fund in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investigators in the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Switzerland are looking at the trail of cash from Malaysia to Abu Dhabi and to offshore bank accounts for a portion of the bond proceeds that appears to have gone missing, the people said.

Authorities in the U.A.E. have frozen the personal assets of and issued travel bans to two former executives of an Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund that had extensive dealings with the Malaysian fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., known as 1MDB, the people said.

The UAE’s actions indicate authorities have moved ahead in their probe into the dealings of Khadem Al Qubaisi and Mohammed Badawy Al Husseiny, both of whom had close connections to 1MDB, the people said. Mr. Al Qubaisi is an Emirati who was the managing director of an $80 billion Abu Dhabi investment fund, International Petroleum Investment Company. Mr. Al Husseiny, an American, was chief executive of another government investment company, Aabar Investments PJS, which is owned by IPIC.

The U.A.E.’s central bank issued the asset freezes, the people said, though it isn’t clear which U.A.E. government agency is running the investigation.

Lawyers for both men and a spokesman for IPIC and Aabar declined to comment.

Separately, the Luxembourg unit of Edmond de Rothschild Group, a private bank that manages money on behalf of wealthy clients, said it is “cooperating” with a government probe into money that may have flowed from 1MDB.

The prosecutor in Luxembourg, a tiny European country that is a hub of private banking, said in a statement that its probe is focused on the movement of funds, related to two bonds 1MDB issued in 2012, through a number of accounts of “offshore” companies in Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg. 1MDB, in a statement, said it had not been contacted by authorities in Luxembourg.

In its statement, the Luxembourg prosecutor said its case was connected to Swiss investigations. The Swiss attorney general’s office in January said it believed money misappropriated from 1MDB could amount to $4 billion. 1MDB at the time said it had not been contacted by any foreign legal authorities on any matters relating to the company, but remains committed to fully cooperating with any investigation.

The 2012 bond sales, each for $1.75 billion, were meant to fund the purchase of power plants in Malaysia. The bonds were guaranteed by Abu Dhabi’s IPIC. After the offering, 1MDB sent a $1.4 billion collateral payment to Aabar, according to 1MDB financial statements.

Investigators in Abu Dhabi believe that money and a later transfer by 1MDB of an additional $1 billion never got to Aabar but instead went to an almost identically named company set up in the British Virgin Islands, called Aabar Investments PJS Ltd. The firm with the similar name was set up by Messrs. Al Husseiny and Al Qubaisi, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.A.E. probe is focusing on whether Messrs. Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny used the British Virgin Islands Aabar to funnel money from 1MDB into various accounts and companies around the world, some of them connected to Malaysians, the people said.

Executives at IPIC have been examining the activity of Messrs. Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny since last summer, according to people familiar with the matter. U.A.E. authorities got more involved in the investigation earlier this year, spurred in part by the Swiss investigation, the people said.

The probes into the 2012 bonds are one of several strands of global investigations into 1MDB, which was set up by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to develop the country’s economy but has accumulated debts of $11 billion that it has struggled to repay.

Authorities in Malaysia and at least six other nations including the U.S. are investigating the fund, including the transfer of more than $1 billion into the prime minister’s bank accounts. Some of the money was used to help the ruling party during a tight national election and some was spent on personal luxury items, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. About $620 million was transferred back to the same shell company that sent the $681 million into the accounts in 2013. It is unclear what happened to the money that was sent back.

Mr. Najib and his supporters have maintained the money in his accounts was a legal donation from the Saudi royal family and have denied the allegations. Mohamed Apandi Ali, Malaysia’s attorney general, cleared the prime minister of wrongdoing in January.

1MDB has denied wrongdoing and pledged to assist with any investigations. The fund has said it had not paid any funds to the personal accounts of the Prime Minister.

Separately, U.S. investigators probing 1MDB have traveled to Malaysia to interview banks, including Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and ask for documents related to their interactions with 1MDB, according to people familiar with the matter. Neither is a focus of the Justice Department’s probe, they added.

Deutsche Bank, as 1MDB’s banker, was involved in sending $1 billion of the fund’s money out of the country in 2009 as part of a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian company, according to documents that form part of a probe into 1MDB by Malaysia’s auditor general. Some of the funds have gone missing, people familiar with the matter said. J.P. Morgan was the banker for 1MDB’s joint venture with the Saudi company.

Both J.P. Morgan and Deutsche declined to comment.

The U.A.E. probe, according to people familiar with the matter, is focusing on Messrs. Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny, who, until last year, were two of 1MDB’s most important contacts in Abu Dhabi. The men are both living in the U.A.E.

Mr. Al Qubaisi was involved in the multibillion-dollar bailout of Barclays PLC during the financial crisis in 2008 as well as several high-profile deals for IPIC and Aabar, including investments in Daimler AG and Virgin Galactic LLC.

Both men have been replaced in their positions. The men’s names disappeared earlier this week from the website of Bahrain’s First Energy Bank, where they were previously listed as board members. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment.

Mr. Al Qubaisi also resigned within the last several weeks as a director of Tasameem Real Estate Co. LLC, the personal investment company of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to the people familiar with the matter. Sheikh Mansour is chairman of the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund IPIC and deputy prime minister of the U.A.E. Sheikh Mansour had declined multiple requests for comment and made no public remarks about 1MDB or the men being replaced at IPIC and Aabar.

—Tom Wright contributed to this article.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 April 2016, 12:55 pm and is filed under
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Deadly Najib Razak ‘gift’ scandal rocks Malaysia

Amanda Hodge

South East Asia correspondent

The Australian

APRIL 2, 2016

On November 1, 2011 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak received a personal windfall pledge so astonishing in size and nature that even close political allies have described it as “too good to be true”.

In language akin to that of a classic Nigerian email scam, Saudi Prince Saud Abdul Aziz Majid Al Saud praised Najib for his work in “governing Malaysia using Islamic principles”.

“In view of the friendship we have developed over the years and your new ideas as a modern Islamic leader, in addition to my earlier commitment, I hereby grant you an additional sum of up to $US375 million only (‘Gift’) which shall be remitted to you at such times and in such manner as I deem fit, either directly through my personal bank or through my instructed company bank accounts (such as Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners limited),” the mystery prince wrote on private office letterhead.

“You shall have absolute discretion to determine how the Gift shall be utilised …. This is merely a token gesture on my part but it is my way of contributing to the development of Islam to the world.”

“For clarification, I do not expect to receive any personal benefit whether directly or indirectly as a result of the Gift,” he added.

In an act of extraordinary foresight — that someone might eventually question the hundreds of millions flowing into the Malaysian Prime Minister’s personal bank account — the letter goes on to indemnify him from suggestion of wrongdoing.

“The Gift should not in any way be construed as an act of corruption since this is against the practice of Islam and I personally do not encourage such practices in any manner whatsoever.”

The letter, obtained by Four Corners and published for the first time this week, is signed HRH Prince Saudi Abdulaziz Al Saud, but there is no further clarification of who he might be in the sprawling pantheon of Saudi family dynasties. No address, no email, no telephone number.

This was the verification offered up to worried executives at Malaysia’s AmBank, almost a quarter owned by ANZ, when vast sums of money started pouring into the Prime Minister’s personal accounts from donors as varied as the Saudi Ministry of Finance, another Saudi prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Bandar Al Saud, and two Virgin Island companies.

While the letter has sparked derision in some quarters it has delivered a moment of triumph for the embattled Najib government.

“The Four Corners report confirms what the Prime Minister has maintained all along, and what multiple lawful authorities concluded after exhaustive investigations: the funds were a donation from the royal family of Saudi Arabia,” it said this week.

That the letter was ultimately deemed sufficient explanation raises obvious questions about AmBank’s regulatory and compliance procedures, which at the time were being overseen by Australian banking executives on secondment from ANZ, its largest shareholder.

Under the terms of its 2006 partnership agreement ANZ has the power to appoint its own people to the AmBank board and into key management positions.

The agreement also obliges AmBank to follow ANZ rules of probity and core policy, and to consult ANZ before approving business plans, mergers, disposals, acquisitions or changes in structure or direction.

Bank management this week said; “ANZ is not involved (and not permitted to be involved) in the day-to-day operations of AmBank which is a listed company on the Malaysian Stock Exchange” — apparently even in the face of transfers so suspect they reportedly triggered internal money laundering alerts within AmBank.

Whether it was Australian-seconded executives that alerted Malaysia’s central bank governor Zeti Aziz to the vast sums pouring into Najib’s accounts, neither Zeti nor ANZ will say.

She told Four Corners the central bank was limited in what it could investigate, but that it always reported information it received to relevant authorities.

Malaysia’s central bank hasn’t entirely sat on its hands. Last October it recommended Najib’s new hand-picked Attorney-General, Mohamad Apandi Ali, initiate criminal proceedings against 1Malaysia Development Berhad for breaches of the Exchange Control Act. Apandi has declined to do so. It has also insisted 1MDB repatriate $US1.83 billion in overseas investments. That has not happened.

Najib’s own bank statements, cited by Four Corners this week, show that between opening AmBank accounts in January 2011 until 2015, he received more than $US1bn.

As chairman of the 1MDB state investment fund advisory board, Najib has ultimately presided over some $US11bn in losses since 2009. Swiss investigators probing the fund estimate up to $US4bn has been misappropriated through accounts, shelf companies and entities linked to 1MDB.

Also looking into 1MDB are authorities in the US, Singapore and Hong Kong. On Thursday Luxembourg authorities announced they too were looking into allegations of money laundering involving hundreds of millions of dollars against 1MDB.

Its judicial inquiry will focus on the origins of four transfers in 2012 and 2013 totalling several hundred million dollars related to two bonds issues in May and October 2012 which raised a total of $US3.5bn but which incredibly cost 1MDB $US2.4bn in options buyback and collateral fees.

Australia has no investigation, notwithstanding ANZ’s partnership with AmBank, and a Gold Coast connection through Avestra Asset Management and Bridge Global Capital Management. Those two companies are linked to a Cayman Islands fund that Malaysian and Singapore media have alleged were used to cover up a $US2.2bn hole in an earlier joint venture between 1MDB and Petro¬Saudi, a company until 2013 co-owned by another Saudi prince Turki Abdullah Al Saud.

Of all the losses, it is the money that flowed into Najib’s accounts that has most incensed Malaysians and led to one of Asia’s most unlikely coalitions, united by their common desire to see him gone.

Two months ago the new Attorney-General cleared Najib of wrongdoing over March 2013 transfers into his account totalling $US681 million via a web of entities that investigators in two countries believe originated with 1MDB.

Apandi was installed last August after his predecessor was removed, allegedly on the eve of pressing charges against the Prime Minister for criminal misappropriation of public funds.

The money received by Najib — transfers that caused his bank such anxiety — had been a no-strings gift from Saudi royals, Apandi said. All but $US61 million was returned.

But The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that copies of bank transfers show money from a person in Saudi Arabia and from the country’s finance ministry occurred in 2011 and 2012 and in smaller amounts, totalling $200m. They could not be the so-called “gift”.

The Malaysian government ignored that point Thursday in a statement trumpeting that the WSJ had “for the first time … been forced to admit that at least some funds donated to the Prime Minister came from Saudi Arabia”.

One particularly damaging revelation to emerge from Najib’s leaked bank statements this week is that, despite the Prime Minister’s insistence that none of the money was for personal use, at least $15m from his accounts appears to have gone on clothes and accessories from Chanel and other stores, jewellery and a prestige car, among other items.

According to documents cited by the WSJ, an account linked to Najib’s credit card received two $9m top-ups in late 2014 from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB now part of the finance ministry. Najib is also finance minister.

While Apandi has demanded all Malaysian investigations into 1MDB and Najib wind up, probes by Malaysia’s central bank, a parliamentary committee, the country’s auditor-general, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and police continue, in the face of sometimes significant intimidation.

The bodies are piling up in the complicated, sprawling saga involving 1MDB and related scandals; from the murders of senior public prosecutor Kevin Morais and AmBank founder Hussain Najadi, to that of a glamorous Mongolian translator, Altantuya Shaaribuu, linked to a kickbacks scandal involving a Malaysian government submarine deal with a French contractor during Najib’s time as Defence Minister.

Close relatives of both Morais and Najadi have said their murders came days after they confided concerns over grand scale corruption involving 1MDB and the powerful political figures.

This week, Malaysia’s Communications Minister issued a statement denying any link between the murders and Najib or 1MDB. Najadi severed ties with AmBank in the 1980s and “authorities such as the Royal Malaysian Police have confirmed Mr Najadi never lodged any reports related to the Prime Minister’s accounts while he was alive”, it said.

Attorney-General Apandi had confirmed numerous times that Morais was not involved in any investigation related to 1MDB or the Prime Minister, notwithstanding his brother’s claims to the contrary, it added.

“Mr Morais was transferred from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to the Attorney- General’s chambers in July 2014, a year before the investigation into 1MDB was even launched.” It did not mention that Morais’ transfer also occurred a year before Apandi was installed to replace a man believed to have been preparing charges against Najib.

Likewise, Najib has “made clear he did not know, had never met, had never had any communication with and had no link whatsoever” to Shaaribuu.

The 29-year-old mother of two was abducted from outside the house of her former lover and close Najib confidante, Abdul Razak Baginda, in 2006 by two elite Malaysian police commandos who shot her twice in the head and then blew her up.

Both police officers have been convicted of her murder and sentenced to death but one of them, Sirul Azhar Umar, is sitting in Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre after he fled Malaysia in 2014 during an appeal against the overturning of his death sentence.

For every accusation in this maze of alleged grand-scale financial crime, political skulduggery and violent villainy is a denial implicitly supported by the threat of legal action, or worse.

Bureaucrats and politicians, including former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, have lost their jobs for speaking out over the issue. Lawyers, politicians, journalists and civil society activists face sedition charges for criticising the government. This week three barristers from the Malaysian Bar Association were questioned by police on possible sedition charges after moving a motion, subsequently carried, calling for Apandi’s resignation.

At least three Malaysian media outlets have been shuttered for reporting on 1MDB, most recently The Malaysian Insider.

Last month a Four Corners team were arrested and detained for two days in Sarawak state after trying to question Najib about the $US681m “gift”.

In June last year Australian journalist Mary Ann Jolley, researching a documentary on the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu for Al Jazeera, was deported from Kuala Lumpur.

So far Najib has not pursued defamation action against international media for its increasingly intense scrutiny of 1MDB and his own financial affairs, resisting the public goading of Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest serving prime minister and his former political mentor-turned-nemesis, to sue or step down.

Mahathir’s role in this saga is a story in itself. Depending on the viewer’s perspective, it is variously the late-term redemption of a former strongman many blame for establishing the corrosive patronage networks which now protect Najib and his ruling UMNO party; or the latest move of an ever-wily politician seeking to protect his legacy and political dynasty.

Seventeen years after Mahathir saw his former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim jailed on what are widely seen as trumped-up charges of sodomy, the 90-year-old has done the unthinkable and joined forces with Anwar to remove Najib.

At a large gathering of Malaysian leaders last Sunday — UMNO party dissidents, opposition party seniors and civil society activists — Mahathir acknowledged there were many in the audience arrested during his term as PM who “should hate me for what I have done but here they are sitting next to me”.

“Why? Because their hatred of Najib is stronger and until Najib resigns or restores the country’s institutions, change cannot come.”

The coalition hopes to secure a million signatures to petition Malaysia’s council of rulers to oust Najib. That should not be difficult given Najib’s plummeting popularity amid an ongoing scandal that has incensed and embarrassed many Malaysians, who like to think of their country as a beacon of democracy and development in Asia.

But Mahathir himself acknowledges the climate of fear now gripping the country will dissuade many from signing his petition. And even as this disparate coalition seeks unity in its collective outrage, there are gnawing doubts about its durability, let alone chances of success.

“Successful people are 100 per cent convinced that they are masters of their own destiny, they’re not creatures of circumstance, they create circumstance. If the circumstances around them suck they change them.”

The line is Jordan Belfort’s, a former Wall Street stockbroker jailed for stock market manipulation whose memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, became a Hollywood film starring Leonardo di Caprio, but it could as easily apply to Malaysia under Najib Razak today.

His government’s move to stifle dissent, through arcane sedition laws and potentially also new legislation empowering him to impose a state of emergency, has been criticised by human rights groups and the US State Department which last month issued a stern rebuke over Malaysia’s media crackdown.

But Martin Scorsese’s cinematic allegory on America’s greed culture might resonate with Malaysians for reasons beyond the corruption scandal embroiling its highest office holders.

The film was produced by Red Granite, a company co-owned by Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz. Its credits give “special thanks” to Jho Low, a school friend of Aziz and playboy financier who helped set up the precursor to 1MDB and is now being investigated by Singapore authorities over $US530m of transfers into his accounts from entities suspected to be linked to 1MDB. He has denied all wrongdoing.

Singapore investigators have begun connecting the dots on Jho Low and 1MDB through his Singaporean banker relationship manager, Yak Yew Chee, who signed an affidavit in February confirming he also managed 1MDB Global, its subsidiary BrazenSky, SRC International, and the Aabar Investments PJS company based in the British Virgin Islands.

The US Justice Department is reportedly also investigating funds that have flowed into and from the Red Granite production house and Jho Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho.

Investigators with the department’s Kleptocracy Initiative are said to be examining up to $US150m worth of real estate tied to Aziz and Low. If Red Granite’s funds can be traced to corrupt use of Malaysian state funds, it too could be seized.

The company says; “There has never been anything inappropriate about any of Red Granite Pictures or Riza Aziz’s business activities.”

But an earlier admission that Red Granite’s biggest backer is Mohamed Ahmed Badawy al-Husseiny, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments, definitely raised eyebrows given 1MDB and Aabar Investments signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2012 that allowed the Malaysian fund to raise $US6.5bn.

In June last year Aabar’s parent company International Petroleum Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi government-owned sovereign wealth fund, announced a multi-billion dollar bailout for its Malaysian partner which must be repaid in June.

IPIC’s former chairman Khadem Al Qubaisi stepped down last April, followed a few months later by the resignation of Aabar chief Mohamed Ahmed Badawy al-Husseiny.

This week Husseiny was placed under house arrest by Abu Dhabi authorities, who are now processing a US extradition request relating to charges concerning 1MDB, according to the London-based online Sarawak Report which cited sources close to the US Justice Department.

Many now believe the US investigations, also examining the $US681m Saudi “gift” routed through America’s Wells Fargo bank, could pose the greatest threat to Najib’s political survival.

IPIC is investigating what happened to at least $US1.4bn in collateral 1MDB said it paid to IPIC via its Aabar Investments subsidiary in exchange for its guarantee on the $3.5 billion bonds issues, but which IPIC never received.

Some $US850m was however paid to the British Virgin Islands incorporated Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, closely resembling the name of IPIC’s wholly owned subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS, according to wire documents cited by The Wall Street Journal.

Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the journalist who runs Sarawak Report, reported yesterday that the Virgin Islands Aabar PJS Ltd was incorporated by Khadem Al Qubaisi and Mohamed Al Husseiny, the man now detained in Abu Dhabi.

It is not the only offshore company linked to 1MDB set up to look like a bona-fide financial corporation.

Investigators in two countries are said to be looking into money from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners — the same BVI company Najib’s mystery Saudi donor mentioned in his letter — and whether any of it came from 1MDB. The giant US Blackstone Group says it has no knowledge of the similarly named offshore company.

It was Rewcastle-Brown who first revealed Najib’s Saudi benefactor, reporting the name Saud Abdul Aziz Majid al Saud was provided to the bank to explain an original payment of $US100m into Najib’s AmBank account in February 2011.

So who is Najib’s mystery Sheikh?

An internet search shows some close matches, but nothing exact.

One option would have been Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the former governor of Medina, if only he hadn’t ruled himself out of contention by dying in 2007.

Less reputable possibilities include Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a 29-year-old sheik who made headlines last year as the “cocaine-soaked Saudi royal” who reportedly held three female staff hostage at a Beverly Hills mansion. Over three days he allegedly forced them to watch as he was pleasured by a male aide, made unwanted sexual advances and threatened to kill one of the women if she refused to “party” with him.

The closest match appears to be the son of another Medina governor, Abdulaziz bin Majid, himself a grandson of the late King Abdulaziz and vice chairman of the Majid Society founded by his father for charitable purposes.

Questions to a Malaysian government spokesman seeking further details on what the Sarawak Report has dubbed the “Fake Sheikh” brought no further clarity.

As opprobrium for Najib Razak builds within and outside Malaysia, it seems almost inconceivable that he should hold on to power much longer.

“This seriously must be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” an exasperated Ambiga Sreenevasan, a prominent Malaysian lawyer and activist, said of the latest Wall Street Journal revelations over the First Couple’s alleged spending sprees.

“For me this is an international embarrassment for the country,” she said. “If this doesn’t move people to do something, I really don’t know what else will.”

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 April 2016, 7:54 am and is filed under
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Dust over corruption allegations against Guan Eng’s RM2.8 million bungalow clearing up while monstrous sandstorm over Najib’s RM55 billion  1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals building up to explosion point

After a two-week relentless barrage by UMNO/BN strategists and cybertroopers, fully supported by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the police, the dust over the corruption allegations against DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng based on half-truths, lies and downright falsehoods, are clearing up  while on the other hand, a monstrous sandstorm over Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals is building up to explosion point.

UMNO/BN allegations that Guan Eng had purchased the bungalow as a result of corruption arising from the sale of Taman Manggis land to KLDIC has been proved to be baseless, as the Taman Manggis land had been sold by the Penang State Government via open tender to the highest bigger.

The other UMNO/BN allegation that the Penang State Government had “robbed” the people of low-cost housing has also been proved to be baseless, with the declassification of the State Exco minutes of the Gerakan State Government in 2005 and 2007 which showed that the Gerakan State Government at the time had rejected the use of the Taman Manggis land for People’s Housing Project (PPR) and proposed instead a mixed project of shophouses and government quarters. In 2012,  the DAP-led Penang government had commenced a separate low, low-medium cost and affordable housing less than 2 kilometers away in Jalan S P Chelliah which is nearly 10 times the size of the land in Taman Manggis.

The MACC and Police have swung into immediate action, with some 15 MACC officers descending on the Penang Chief Minister’s office in Komtar, conducting a search   for some four hours and carting away boxes of documents.

If the MACC had shown similar alacrity in investigating Najib’s twin mega scandals,  MACC should be sending hundreds of officers to swarm and besiege the Prime Minister’s Offices in Putrajaya, and subject  individuals involved in  the  twin mega scandals to intensive interrogation sessions, at least  round-the-clock 12-hour interrogation sessions.

Would MACC dare to  interrogate the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, on a round-the-clock 12-hour sessions?

These questions come to mind as  Najib’s RM4.2 billion donation scandal is 1,500 times bigger than Guan Eng’s alleged RM2.8 million bungalow scandal while the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is 20,000 times bigger than the alleged RM2.8 million bungalow scandal!

A strange and extraordinary  thing has been taking place in Malaysia in the last few days.

Inside the country, all efforts are being made by the powers-that-be to sweep Najib’s twin mega scandals under the carpet, culminating with the “note” by the  Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia  to all  Members of Parliament on Thursday imposing a blanket ban in Parliament from referring to  Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal on the ground of sub judice –  despite the Speaker’s earlier ruling that he will not impose a “blanket ban” but would decide  on a case-by-case basis whether the sub judice  rule applies.

Externally however, things are moving quick and  fast with an avalanche of  revelations about various aspects of  Najib’s twin mega scandals, viz:

•	Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners 44-minute documentary on  “State of Fear: Money and Murder in Malaysia” which enumerated that the total donations deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts from 2011 to 2014 exceeded RM4.2 billion and not the oft-quoted figure of RM2.6 billion;

•	the Wall Street Journal report about Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s US$15 million shopping spree on luxury goods during their holidays in United States, Malaysia, Italy and elsewhere in 2014;

•	Luxembourg’s state prosecutor launching a judicial inquiry into allegations of money-laundering, covering payments totaling hundreds of millions of US dollars, against 1MDB;

•	Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s sequestration of a large number of bank accounts as part of an investigation into possible money-laundering linked to 1MDB; and

•	the widening investigation by the US Department of Justice into 1MDB by asking Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co to provide details on their dealings with 1MDB.

There had been worse news for Najib in the past 24 hours, with the following  international news reports:

•	Investigators in two countries, the United States and United Arab Emirates,  believe that US$155 million (RM603 million) from 1MDB went to production company Red Granite Pictures to make the 2013 hit movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (Wall Street Journal).

•	United Arab Emirate authorities have issued travel bans on and frozen the assets of two former executives the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) in an escalation of its probe into monetary transactions involving 1MDB. The UAE’s actions indicate authorities have moved ahead in their probe into the dealings of Khadem Al Qubaisi and Mohammed Badawy Al Husseiny, both of whom had close connections to 1MDB.(Wall Street Journal)

The saying “It never rains but it pours” befits Najib’s mounting woes over  his twin mega scandals, despite his success to sweep both mega scandals under the carpet in the public domain at home.

Had  Najib’s strategists and minders prior knowledge of this gathering  storm over Najib’s twin mega scandals with developments in  various parts of the world coming to a head and was the onslaught and barrage against Guan Eng alleging corruption of his RM2.8 million bungalow purchase an attempt to deflect attention from these climatic developments on Najib’s twin mega scandals?

One is  fortified in such a mindset by the common thread in the  very ham-fisted manner in alleging corruption over Guan Eng’s RM2.8 million bungalow purchase (ignoring the fact that the Taman Manggis land was sold by open-tender and that it was the previous Gerakan Penang state government which decided against building low-cost houses on it) with the outrageous  claim that Najib’s donations were  meant to fight Islamic State (IS) or that it was in appreciation of Najib’s Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), when both IS and GMM came after and not before the donations.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 April 2016, 3:41 pm and is filed under
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