The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)-linked alleged global multi-billion-dollar/ringgit money laundering probes have caused banks to be closed down, assets to be frozen and resignations of bankers and those who held high offices in the private and public sectors.
Dubbed the world’s largest ever money laundering expose that saw the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) taking the lead to act against 1MDB-linked characters, some 10 countries have since launched probes that resulted in assets and financial facilities to be frozen.
The probes are about alleged billions of dollars/ringgit being stolen from 1MDB, a so called sovereign wealth fund wholly owned Malaysia’s Finance Ministry.
To date, 1MDB has claimed various foreign victims, individuals, banks and corporations, but amazingly, not a single Malaysian individual or entity has been hauled up for investigations by any authority, be it the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian central bank or financial watchdog.
Only in Malaysia can such arrogance and lack of enforcement integrity be displayed by a ruling federal government and its politicians and their lackeys toward such a mega financial scandal.
At every international expose on the 1MDB scandal that is always backed with documentary evidence, the response from the 1MDB Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Umno-led Barisan Nasional federal government is just plain denial.
They also go one step further to spin rubbish - that it is all a foreign conspiracy to interfere or an attempt to bring down PM Najib.
They also go as far as claiming that the probes are akin to terrorists attacking Islam and Malaysia! Such jerks!
While the foreign 1MDB tenpins are falling one by one, Najib and his sycophant lackeys continue to spin garbage to suppress the alleged global 1MDB-linked money laundering network.
This is why Malaysians have popularly and sarcastically dubbed their country as Bolehland (Land of Anything Also Can).
In short, isn’t Malaysia now on the verge of a failed state?
This is the latest expose by whistle blower website Sarawak Report as reproduced by the Malaysian-banned online news portal Malaysia Chronicle:
"NAJIB & ROSMAH NO LONGER ‘UNTOUCHABLE’: BOMBSHELL – ROTHSCHILD HEIRESS FORCED TO QUIT HER OWN BANK DUE TO 1MDB, THE NAJIBS NEXT TO FACE THE ‘GUILLOTINE’
Politics | September 15, 2016 by | 0 Comments
The 1MDB scandal has now claimed perhaps its most prominent banking casualty so far.
It emerged in Luxembourg today that the President of Banque Privee Edmond de Rothschild (BPERE), Ariane de Rothschild, quietly relinquished her post on July 20th.
This was the same Ariane de Rothschild, a member of Europe’s most powerful and famous banking family, who had been declared ‘untouchable‘ by her entourage after being questioned on French TV about evidence produced by Sarawak Report showing her bank had handled half a billion dollars linked to Jho Low.
The money had passed through the Vasco Trust accounts of their top client, the then Aabar boss, Khadem Al Qubaisi.
Sarawak Report has been questioning the bank’s links to 1MDB since March of last year and in August the Chief Executive of the Bank, Marc Ambroisien, duly announced he would be stepping down from his job.
Sarawak Report had published documents showing that Al Quabaisi had purchased an Aston Martin for Ambroisien “as a gift”
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Ambroisien today claimed this document is a fake |
“If the money from Coastal had arrived [at HSBC] it would be frozen….. 3/4 of the activities, which have been received, if I did not have the position I have they would not have been received or they would have been immediately frozen” [translated from French]
However, today in an exclusive interview with Lux Wort newspaper Ambroisien had declared that the document on the car was ‘fake’, saying that he had bought the vehicle with his own money. He also said that the recording, whilst genuine, had been quoted out of context.
Blame Game at BPERE?
In his interview Ambroisien also told the Luxembourg paper that he is now fighting his case and denies all charges of suspicion against him.He apparently had no reason whatsoever to consider Al Qubaisi’s vast transfers into his private trust accounts as at all suspicious. Ambroisien, who was accompanied by a lawyer, also said that all the Al Qubaisi transactions had been supervised at many levels throughout the bank, including its Headquarters in Switzerland and in France.
Several regulatory professionals had scrutinised the accounts of this politically exposed person, claimed Ambroisien, and not one had seen any cause for concern that a salaried fund manager should be banking hundreds of millions over a single year from a BVI account called Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partnership, which in fact had nothing to do with the globally known Blackstone Group.
If so, then Ambroisien has in taking up battle with the bank drawn in a far wider group of people who appear to have actively failed in their anti-money laundering duties.
This may explain the low-key departure of his President Ariane de Rothschild along with a swathe of no less than seven other top officials at the bank, which was registered on July 20th, but so far has not been publicly announced.
It can be no coincidence that the date of this mass resignation was the same day that the Department of Justice filed its notice on 1MDB, which included the seizure of assets belonging to Khadem Al Qubaisi in the United States, which had been purchased by money from the Rothschild Vasco Trust account.
The DOJ filing had explained in detail the exact money trail from 1MDB to Blackstone Asia (which was controlled by Jho Low) and then on to Khadem Al Qubaisi.
A cover-up that failed?
At the time of his own departure, Ambroisien has pointed out, there were no public acknowledgements of any concerns of his own conduct by the bank, despite the revelations by Sarawak Report regarding his relationship with Khadem Al Qubaisi.
Far from this being the case, the bank had announced last August that Ambroisien had departed of his own free will in order to pursue his personal career interests and that he would remain on the Board of the bank and retain close ties. He would even be allowed to continue as an agent of the bank, using its banking licence for the purpose, according to a letter signed by Ariane de Rothschild herself, in which she had announced her CEO’s departure and praised him for ‘exceptional service’ to the bank.
“he will continue to work closely with us” – signed Ariane de Rothschild August 2015Whilst pursuing this continuing ‘close relationship’ Ambroisien acknowledges that he continued to act as the manager of several private companies on behalf of certain special clients of the bank, including Khadem Al Qubaisi, a matter that has also been reported on by Sarawak Report.
It appears that this cosmetic removal of Ambroisien had been considered sufficient by the bank for several months, despite Sarawak Report’s revelations and the growing number of investigations by international authorities.
Indeed, one piece of damning information obtained by Luxemburg Wort is that it was not until after the Cash Investigation report on French TV earlier this year that the Rothschild bank even filed a ‘suspicious transaction’ report to the regulatory authorities about the KAQ accounts.
Sarawak Report had been highlighting those very suspicions for over a year!
It appears to have taken a massive raid on the bank, which occurred in late June, followed by the revelations of the DOJ report to convince the ‘untouchables’ that they were indeed touched.
The full implications for the bank and Ambroisien remain uncertain as the parties fight each other and scramble to clear their names.
Nevertheless, back in Malaysia after his ‘Thai holiday’, Official Number One will doubtless be hoping things will be different and that those who are regarded as ‘untouchable’ remain so. – SARAWAK REPORT"
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