Global insults and shame heap on Malaysia, 1MDB …
Malaysia and its Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government have been globally hammered intensely over its failure to act appropriately over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) alleged international multi-billion-dollar/ringgit money-laundering activities.
Indeed, the BN federal government is taking so many beatings worldwide that its integrity and legitimacy to administer the country are now being questioned not only by Malaysians by foreigners.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) started the ball rolling last July by filing law suits seeking to seize dozens of properties tied to 1MDB, saying that over US$3.5 billion (RM14 billion) was misappropriated from the institution.
The lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles, seek to seize assets “involved in and traceable to an international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated from 1MDB”.
The lawsuits said the alleged offences were committed over a four-year period and involved multiple individuals, including Malaysian officials and their associates, who conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB.
This sparked money-laundering probes linked to 1MDB, with some 10 countries freezing suspicious banking facilities and assets linked to 1MDB.
However, there is little interest or effort shown by the BN federal government to investigate whether billions of dollars/ringgit from 1MDB had been stolen, and if so, who is/are the thief/thieves.
1MDB, a so-called national sovereign fund, is now wholly owned by Malaysia’s Finance Ministry.
And, the world is also watching closely the BN federal government’s failure to investigate and close the case of three controversial murders satisfactorily.
The murders that are perceived linked to character/s of high government authority are:
> Mongolian French interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu who was shot point blank in the head and her body blown to smithereens with military grade C4 explosives on Oct 18, 2006. Two police commandos have since been found guilty and sentenced to hang for the murder but no motive has been established why two policemen would do such a slaying, and under whose instructions?
> The assassination of Arab-Malaysian Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi who was shot dead in broad daylight in the heart of Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur, in late July 2013; and
> Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) for the Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Anthony Kevin Morais, whose body was found cemented in an oil drum in September 2015. There has been reports claiming that Morais was the DPP was investigating 1MDB.
There has been seemingly endless exposes on the scandal-tainted 1MDB, especially by Sarawak Report, being reported worldwide in both print and electronic media.
Malaysians are wondering when the global shame will come to a close.
Do they have to wait until Malaysia’s socio-economic political integrity is totally destroyed before there is closure?
No News Is Bad News reproduces below an articled posted by the Malaysian-banned online news portal Malaysia Chronicle for readers to judge the latest international insult and shame that Malaysians and Malaysia have been subjected to:
"HAPPY ‘MURDER-KA’ NAJIB – FROM SON OF SLAIN BANKER: MY DAD KNEW HUGE SUMS OF 1MDB MONEY WERE ENTERING YOUR A/CS IN AMBANK
Politics | August 31, 2016 by | 0 Comments
GENEVA – Moscow and Geneva-based Investment Banker Pascal Najadi, who once called Malaysia home, has expressed shock that police in his old country were keeping an “ominous silence” despite #TangkapMO1” (Catch Malaysian Official 1) street protests by student coalitions. Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) is the euphemism used by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to refer to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) is the euphemism used by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), in a civil action suit filed in a California Court recently, to refer to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Swiss-born Investment Banker Pascal Najadi charged that when his father Hussain Ahmad Najadi was assassinated in late July 2013, outside a temple in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian police likewise virtually did nothing.
“They never probed the motive behind the killing. They refuse to investigate the motive that is central to any criminal investigation the world over.”
His father, who founded ArabMalaysian which has since emerged as the country’s 5th largest bank, knew then that unusually large sums of money originating from the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were entering AmBank Islamic Private Banking Services.
“They were being deposited in the Prime Minister’s personal account according a witness that gave us his statement,” he recalled.
Pascal pointed out the DoJ has since confirmed the money that his father complained about to the central bank, Bank Negara, was the same itemized in the civil action suit i.e. USD 681 million, USD20 million and USD30 million, all originating from 1MDB.
The Malaysian Attorney General Mohd Apandi Ali cleared Najib of wrongdoing last July. He never touched on the USD20 million and the USD30 million but only on the USD681 million and another sum, RM42 million, from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance owned SRC International.
“Apandi said the USD681 million was a political donation, with no strings attached, from the Saudi Royal Family to Najib,” noted Pascal.
“The Attorney General also explained that when Najib was spending the RM42 million, including RM3 million on two credit card bills, he thought that the money was part of the so-called USD681 million donation. There is the mismatch.”
The catch in the story, added Pascal, can be found in Najib’s explanation itself to the AG.
“The AG said that Najib returned USD620 million of the USD681 million because ‘it was not used’.”
The fact is that Najib, according to his story, had already returned USD620 million of the “political donation” by the time the RM42 million came in. So, said Pascal, he (Najib) cannot claim that when he was spending the RM42 million, he assumed it was part of the USD681 million.
The AG could have thrown the book at Najib on the RM42 million, continued Pascal, but he didn’t. “The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act (MACC) is clear. The receipt of the RM42 million — allegedly for instructing the Retirement Fund KWAP to loan RM4 billion to SRC — was a clear cut case of corruption.”
Not only did the AG clear Najib on the RM42 million and the USD681 million, lamented the Swiss Investment Banker, he also instructed the MACC to close the files on the investigations although he has no power to do so. “There’s no evidence either that Najib returned the RM42 million to SRC International.”
He hopes that something will come out of three cases that former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim, sacked Umno Batu Kawan deputy divisional chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan, and the Bar Council have filed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to compel Najib to return the RM42 million to SRC International and the USD681 million to 1MDB.
“No one believes that Najib ‘returned’ USD620 million to the Saudi Royal Family,” said Pascal. “The question doesn’t arise. The USD681 million was from 1MDB. The DoJ filings are clear on the matter.”
By Najib’s own admission, he said, he spent USD31 million of the USD681 million on buying the 2013 General Election. “That’s electoral fraud to add to plundering public monies. Clear cut criminal acts in my opinion.” Najadi concluded.
– Najadi & Partners
Happy Merdeka with Malaysia Chronicle"
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