Thieving Malaysians!
Now, aren’t Malaysians and Malaysia fabulously incredible as money-laundering “specialists”!
We have a former prime minister of 22-years, the 91-year-old Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Dr M), and a former deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, now calling a sitting prime minister (PM) a PENCURI (THIEF)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_Aui1PXi1JM
And that sitting PM is Umno president cum 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Najib Razak.
Malaysia and Malaysians are today globally infamous for money-laundering. Already, the 1MDB-linked alleged multi-billion-dollar/ringgit money-laundering probe is billed as the largest-ever in world financial history.
As if that is not enough a global shame, Al Jazeera News has exposed another US$1.5 billion (RM6 billion) money-laundering scandal involving a little known Malaysian.
Well, what’s that idiom - leadership by example?
But most amazing of all is the fact that, in Malaysian politics, “malu” (shame) is not in the dictionary of 1MDB PM Najib and the Umno-led Barisan Nasional federal government.
In short, they know no shame.
With Malaysians now world famous as master money launderers or thieves or cheats, or whatever you wish to call them, do you think both local and foreign investors still find Malaysia a haven for investments?
No News Is Bad News reproduces below two reports posted by the Malaysian-banned online news portal Malaysia Chronicle FYI:
"DR M UPS THE ANTE ON UMNO: NOW THAT YOU ADMIT NAJIB IS MO1, NEXT YOU MUST ADMIT HE IS A THIEF
Politics | September 8, 2016 by | 0 Comments
1. It is interesting to note the admission by UMNO Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan that “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” in the report by the Department of Justice, the United States of America is obviously Dato Sri Najib the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
2. Now what does the DoJ say about MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 i.e. about Najib the Malaysian Prime Minister.
I. On page 13 para 39 the report says, “Upon its formation, MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 i.e. Dato Sri Najib assumed a position of authority with 1MDB. MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) had the authority to approve all appointments to, and removals from, 1MDB’s Board of Directors and 1MDB’s Senior Management Team. In addition, any financial commitments by 1MDB, including investments, that were likely to affect a guarantee given by the Government of Malaysia for the benefit of 1MDB or any policy of the Malaysian government required. the approval of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 i.e. Najib.”
II. Page 17 para 50. “A special meeting of 1MDB Board was held on September 26, 2009. Low (not a board member) also attended this meeting.”
III. Page 11 para 29. “Aziz is a relative of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and a friend of Low.”
IV. Page 55 para 178. “Once funds were transferred from Aabar-BVI to Blackstone,they were used to make payments to QUBAISI and HUSSEINY, who served as officers of both Aabar and Aabar-BVI to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and to 1MDB Officer 3.”
V. Page 59 para 192. “The MB Consulting Account received another wire transfer of $1,500,000 from the Blackstone Account on or about January 22, 2013.
3. Blackstone Transferred at least $30 million to an Account Belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib).”
VI. Page 59 para 193. “Blackstone also transferred at least $30,000,000 to an account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) shortly after receiving funds from Aabar-BVI.”
VII. Page 59 para 194. “On or about Oct 30, 2012 – roughly seven days after Blackstone received $75,000,000 directly from Aabar-BVI and roughly six days after it received $360,000,000 indirectly from Aabar-BVI via Enterprise and Cistenique – Blackstone transferred $5,000,000 into the account at Ambank in Malaysia held in the name of “AMPRIVATE BANKING MR.”
VIII. Page 59 para 195 . “The bank account “Amprivate Banking MR” belongs to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and is the same account that received $20,000,000 from the PETROSAUDI CO- FOUNDER in 2011, within days of the receipt by the PETROSAUDI CO-FOUNDER of funds from Good Star, as set forth in Section II.G.”
IX. Page 59 para 196. “On or about November 19, 2012 – less than two weeks after Blackstone received $95,000,000 from Aabar-BVI via Enterprise – Blackstone transferred $25,000,000 to the same AMPRIVATE BANKING-MR Account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib).
X. Page 60 para 200 . “Blackstone was used as an intermediary to obscure the fact that 1MDB bond proceeds were being sent from Aabar-BVI – of which QUBAISI and HUSSEINY were directors – to accounts that were beneficially owned by QUBAISI, HUSSEINY, MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and 1MDB OFFICER 3.”
XI. Page 60 para 201 . “The funds sent to accounts belonging to QUBAISI, HUSSEINY, MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and 1MDB OFFICER 3, as described above, were unlawfully misappropriates from 1MDB and/or IPIC.”
XII. Page 60 para 202 . “Between June 18, 2012 and November 4, 2012 $238,000,000 was transferred directly from Aabar-BVI Swiss Account to an account controlled by Aziz, a relative of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib).”
XIII. Page 67 para 229. “Funds transferred to the Tanore Account were distributed for the benefit of at least one public official associated with 1MDB. More particularly, very shortly after the bond offering closed, between approximately March 21, 2013 and March 25, 2013, $681,000,000 was transferred from the Tanore Account to an account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib). Of this amount, approximately $620 million was returned to the Tanore Account on or about August 26, 2013.”
XIV. Page 71 para 242. “The offering circular also omitted material facts necessary to make its representations regarding the use of the bond proceeds not misleading, in that it failed to disclose that certain individuals related to 1MDB, including MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib), would receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the proceeds of the bond sale within days of its closing. This fact would have been material to the bond transaction, as it would have alerted investors to the possibility of conflicts of interest and related-party transactions. The representation that ADMIC had not determined how all of the bond proceeds would be used did not encompass using those funds, beginning almost immediately after the bond issue, for the personal benefit of individuals related to 1MDB and their associates.”
XV. Page 74 para 257. “Instead, funds from the Tanore Account were sent to an account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib), and were used by TAN and LOW to purchase art. Funds from the Tanore Account were also used by LOW to acquire a substantial interest in a luxury hotel in New York City. These uses were inconsistent with the intended purpose of the bond proceeds as set forth in the offering circular and the April 23, 2013, 1MDB press release.”
XVI. Page 75. D. “$681 MILLION WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE TANORE ACCOUNT TO AN ACCOUNT BELONGING TO MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (NAJIB).”
XVII. Page 75 para 259. “Shortly after proceeds of the 2013 bond sale were diverted to the Tanore Account, $681,000,000 was sent from the Tanore Account to a bank account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib).”
XVIII. Page 75 para 261. “This account belonged to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib) and is the same account that in 2011 received $20 million from the PETROSAUDI CO-FOUNDER that was traceable to the Good Star Account, as set forth in Section II.G. It is also the same account in 2012 received at least $30 million from the Blackstone Account that was traceable to the Aabar-BVI Swiss Account and the 2012 bond proceeds, as set forth in Section III.E.3.”
XIX. Page 75 para 262. “On or about August 26, 2013, $620,010,715 was wired from a different account at Ambank to the Tanore Account. This AmBank account also belonged to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib), and the transfer represented funds from the $681 million payments that were being returned to Tanore.
XX. Page 75 para 263. ” The Attorney General of Malaysia publicly stated that he conducted an inquiry into the $681 million in payments. In a press release issued on January 26, 2016, the Malaysian Attorney General confirmed that, “the sum of USD681 million (RM2.08 billion) [was] transferred into the personal account of [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib)] between 22.03.2013 and 10.04.2013,” and that, “in August 2013, a sum of USD620 million (RM2.03 billion) was returned by [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib)] ….” The Malaysian Attorney General ultimately characterized the payment of $681 million as a “personal donation to [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib)] from the Saudi royal family which was given to him without any consideration.”
XXI. Page 76 para 264. ” Bank records associated with the Tanore Account show that TAN was the beneficial owner of the Tanore Account, from which the $681,000,000 payments to the account of MALAYSIAN OFFICAL 1 (Najib) were made, and that 1MDB OFFICER 3 was added as an authorized signor on the Tanore Account roughly one day before the first wire of $620,000,000 was sent from the Tanore Account to the account of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (Najib).”
– http://chedet.cc/"
"THE US$1.5BIL DOLLAR MAN: NOT ONLY NAJIB & JHO LOW – ANOTHER MALAYSIAN EXPOSED AS A MASTER MONEY-LAUNDERER
Politics | September 8, 2016 by | 0 Comments
How do you launder one-and-a-half billion dollars? If it is denominated in $100 bills, it would be the equivalent of 12 fully stacked palettes. Buying property, art and expensive watches does not cut it. So the Maldives president’s closest ministers and aides came up with a plan.
Stealing Paradise, a documentary by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, has shown that the Maldives government “controls all the levers of state” and often uses them for nefarious purposes. This time, they thought they would pull those levers in the service of secretive Asian businessmen representing a boss referred to only as “Mr Hans”.
The plan was remarkably simple. They would charter a plane to fly the money to the Maldives, accompanied by security guards. The guards would hand it over to local soldiers, who would supervise its transfer to a vault. There, it would be counted and verified by Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) officials. The central bankers would then credit a private company account. Finally, the owners would gradually telegraph-transfer the money back out.
As they did so, the money would appear to be the cleanly earned profits of a tourism investment.
“It’s like something from a James Bond film,” says Robert Palmer, an anti-corruption expert at Global Witness.
Financial Intelligence?
Palmer points out that such a transaction “raises a huge red flag of money laundering”. However, if the central bank is involved, its Financial Intelligence Unit will look the other way, turning a blind eye to that red flag.
Phone belonging to former vice president Ahmed Adeeb
In the Maldives, several sources say that the MMA looked the other way repeatedly as it failed to detect suspicious transactions linked to the theft of nearly $80m of state money. The MMA did not respond to a request for comment.
Details of the giant money-laundering plot appear in data obtained from three of the iPhones of Ahmed Adeeb, the former vice president of the Maldives. He gave his phones to an ally before being arrested. A source passed on the data.
Emails, text and Viber messages lay out how the plan was put in place by several of the president’s men; his personal security officer, his Minister of State at the President’s Office, his Tourism Minister and his nephew, who happened to be Minister of Social Affairs.
Step One – The Cover Story
The ‘cover story’ came in the form of a letter from the tourism ministry setting out an implausibly large investment plan
The first step was to come up with a reason to be “investing” so much money, something to make everything look clean.
“11/08/2014 07:29:22(UTC+0), +960******* (Colonel “Papa” Fayaz) ? Government is making a cover story of giving us a project develop for that the fund’s will be bought.”
The chief of the army’s Special Protection Group, Colonel Ahmed “Papa” Fayaz, who was responsible for the security of the president, wrote the message to his co-plotters.
The “cover story” came in the form of a letter from the Tourism Ministry dated September 4, 2014. It outlined three sets of geographical coordinates. The coordinates point to three lagoons a 50-minute speedboat away from the capital.
[Zoom in to see the billion-dollar islands]
[Zoom in to see the billion-dollar islands]
The letter set out an investment plan – the acquisition of the lagoons for $20m and an investment of up to $1.5bn. It is implausibly large. Resort developments rarely cost more than $100m. The money would pay for three floating golf courses, for example, and when Hilton redeveloped Rangalifinolhu Island to include the world’s first underwater restaurant, they spent only $25m.
Step Two – Company Structure
Step two was to put the company structures in place and open the bank accounts.
Tan Kuan Yew
The Tourism Minister had written the “cover story” letter to Singaporean Tan Kuan Yew, who represented the supposed investors in the project. He leads a company called Idea V and is also executive chairman of Ufinity, a software firm in Singapore.
Kuan acted as the middleman, led the communication and helped set up the shell companies. He visited the Maldives three times.
21/09/2014 09:02:22(UTC+0), +65******** (Tan Kuan Yew) ?
I happy to meet the president if u think is appropriate.
Kuan replied to the Tourism Ministry just over two weeks later.
“When the physical fund arrives in Maldives, we need support from Maldives Monetary Authority to secure the fund from the aircraft to bank premises for verification, counting and ensure immediate credit to our bank account.”
In this letter from September 22, 2014, Tan Kuan Yew writes from his company IDEA-V to the Minister of Tourism outlining the investment and referring to a “physical fund” of up to $1.5bn that needs transporting into the Maldives.
Original Document (PDF) »
Contributed by: Al Jazeera Investigative Unit, Al Jazeera English
Rosihan Yacub
Kuan was working with Jude Anand, an executive who visited the Maldives in September 2014. He sent reports of his progress to Indonesian Rosihan Yacub, who was also copied into the communications. Yacub has interests in green energy firms and a number of mines and plantations.
The other Indonesian involved was Abdul Hakam Hadi, who leads Bukit Ibam iron ore mine and an offshore company in Malaysia’s tax haven of Labuan. That is where the other man involved in the deal, Faidzan Hassan, has a company by the name of SitiTrust and Administrator.
Faidzan Hassan
Hassan studied accounting and spun the web of companies through which the money would pass. He is the executive director of KIC Oil and Gas, which runs terminals in Malaysia, and managing director of Leoco Oil. Company records show that his wife is also a registered director of Leoco.
Abdul Hakam Hadi and Faidzan Hassan
The mogul lives in the largest of a series of plush houses in a gated compound in one of the smartest suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. It has a two-acre, Japanese-style garden that backs on to a nature reserve.
For the Maldives project, Faidzan would use his Labuan-registered trust company, SitiTrust and Administrator. It is the parent company of a local subsidiary in the Maldives by the same name, to which the money would be transferred from the central bank.
Al Jazeera caught up with Faidzan in a luxury mall in Kuala Lumpur and asked, “Do you help people launder money?”
“My God, how can you even say that? Say it to my face! How can you even say that?” Faidzan denied the allegations. “I’ve been in this business for 35 years, okay. At this age I don’t need to do that.”
Faidzan Hassan angrily denies the allegations
“How many palettes?”
However, shortly before Faidzan made his denial, he had met our undercover reporter, who told him he represented wealthy clients with political connections who wanted absolute secrecy.
Finance professionals are taught to be very wary of secretive, politically exposed people dealing in large amounts of hard currency, but Faidzan was not worried. “Some of it’s in cash,” the reporter said. “I know that might be an issue.”
“No,” came the reply. “We can do that … How many palettes do you have? Three hundred? Five hundred?”
“Much as they say money is dirty,” says Faidzan, “I don’t deal with arms and drugs. That’s it. So long as they don’t sell arms, my conscience is clear.”
Faidzan Hassan
Faidzan is an expert in guaranteeing secrecy as well, boasting that he had hidden the identity of one of his most high-profile clients behind seven shell companies. “Even at the end of it,” he says, “the identity of the owner is actually a foundation in my name that goes nowhere. It’s actually a Panama foundation.”
“In normal circumstances I’ve gone up to three to four, which is enough protection actually.”
Having guaranteed privacy and made it clear we could clean cash, he explained his method. Like the Maldives plot, he would launder the money through a central bank in the region. “It’ll come to a country in Asia. That’s all I can say for now. We have an arrangement with the central bank and everything else … it’s not about the know-how. It’s the know-who!”
It appears Faidzan is very well connected. He told our reporter that he got out of stockbroking in 1997 when the then Finance Minister of Malaysia warned him of the upcoming economic crisis of the Tiger Economies. He is also photographed on Facebook with the President of Madagascar, and was of course in touch with the people at the top of the Maldives government.
There is no suggestion that the Madagascar president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, was in any way involved with the plot.
Faidzan Hassan meets with the President of Madagascar
Step Three – Clearing the way with the central bank
From: From: +65******** Tan Kuan Yew
Timestamp: 13/09/2014 07:12:48(UTC+0)
Source App: Viber
Gentleman, I still 3 things. 1. Letter from MMA, for which I have sent a a draft to fayaz, pls give me that ASAP, if possible by tomorrow. 2. Confirm a date after which u can accept the cargo, meaning after this date the MMA is able to handle the 64 mil usd first shipment, that include verification n counting, and logistics as appropriate. 3. Pls also informed the bank of Maldives. after account is credited, 10 mil usd will be TT to Sg or HK, the balance will stay in Maldives to be used as loan or projects unless of course if I can’t find suitable usage after 6 month, the money will be TT out. Basically, every deal is like that, pls also get advice from central bank about the capacity on a monthly basis. Thanks!
Tan Kuan Yew was keen to put the plan into action, but he needed an approval letter from the central bank, called the MMA, to clear the way. He was frustrated by the slow progress.
21/09/2014 08:41:41(UTC+0), +6597909699 (Tan Kuan Yew) ? I did a report to rosihan, he is comfortable with details in Maldives. We can confirm our schedule to ship cargo by next week. I think no need a meeting with president until after transaction. More important to have letter and for u to confirm when u are ready to receive cargo. If time permit, we can meet again just to make sure everything is ok
The letter did not come.
From: From: +6597909699 Tan Kuan Yew
Timestamp: 01/10/2014 03:07:45(UTC+0)
Source App: Viber
Body:
Gentleman, I have been waiting for the letter since last thurs? Can we resolve the issue and get the letter issued today? If there are issues, pls be upfront about it. Thanks!
Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb, tried to force the issue.
From: +960******* Col. Papa Fayaz, Army Special Protection Group
Timestamp: 08/09/2014 16:10:44(UTC+0)
Source App: Viber
Sir what should we do now … about this we can’t bring the fund’s if the bank is not ready
—————————–
From: Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb
Timestamp: 08/09/2014 16:19:10(UTC+0)
Source App: Viber
We will make them ready
But Adeeb could not make them ready and the MMA letter never came. Adeeb contacted the Central Bank Governor and attempted to get her to clear the way for the cash.
11/07/2014 11:03:38(UTC+0), +960*******
(MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
Is that 60 million in cash?
11/07/2014 11:06:11(UTC+0),
Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb
Hahaha Jihad called
11/07/2014 11:06:41(UTC+0), +960*******
(MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
Yes. Not a good thing
11/07/2014 11:07:49(UTC+0), ?
Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb
It’s all flight capital ppl want to move here , mostly since Indonesian elections, lot of offshore oil trade money
11/07/2014 11:08:07(UTC+0), +960*******
(MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
MMA AML policy wouldnt allow cash.
11/07/2014 11:09:52(UTC+0), +960******* (MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
If they can provide the details of source of funds and the legitimacy of earning that then only can at a bank.
11/07/2014 11:10:13(UTC+0),
Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb
They can give all that proof
11/07/2014 11:10:44(UTC+0), +960*******
(MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
Some hv to be there to make sure our financial sector is clean
11/07/2014 11:11:50(UTC+0), ?
Tourism Minister, Ahmed Adeeb
I agree but we need to develop as well, at the moment we are at a very crucial financial position
11/07/2014 11:12:13(UTC+0), +960*******
(MMA Governor Azeema Adam)
If they can provide all the evidence can find a way.
Having failed to get the MMA to issue a letter, the Finance Ministry appeared to step in and a letter emerged in December with the same wording Tan Kuan Yew had suggested.
Toggle DescriptionLETTER-FROM-FINANCE-MINISTER-to-ROSIHAN-YACUB
Following the September 2014 email, this December letter that appears to be from the Finance Ministry which states that the Government of Maldives is willing to accept the fund from the businessmen. it is addressed to Rosihan Yacub.
Original Document (PDF) »
Contributed by: Al Jazeera Investigative Unit, Al Jazeera English
Step four – Arrange the logistics
When you have the money, the cover story, the company structure and the government approvals, it is time to make the final arrangements.
In January 2015, Tan Kuan Yew flew back to Male, this time with the mysterious “Mr Hans”. Faidzan and Hakam Abdul Hadi joined them, landing at 21.45 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Tan Kuan Yew’s immigration record
Then it was time for lunch with Tourism Minister Adeeb, who would soon be vice president and later imprisoned, and the Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad, who would soon replace Adeeb as vice president.
“We will like to discuss and hopefully finalise our first transaction,” wrote Tan Kuan Yew. “We could look at possible financial institution licences, duty free project etc.,” he added.
By March, it appeared that they were ready. Tan Kuan Yew sent a new email, this time listing the details of a charter flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, to the Iranian capital Tehran and then to Maldives.
A source has told us that the cash was coming from Iran. Faidzan Hassan’s Facebook account also shows he visited the country at this time, posting a series of photos of him standing in snow. He wrote the caption, ‘Why go to Tehran when just outside the city looks like this at the end of winter just before Spring?”
Robert Palmer, the anti-corruption expert, said: “I haven’t seen an example of this amount of cash that you laundered through a central bank before. You often have cases where you have corrupt governments and they can use their central banks as piggy banks to take out money, but this amount and in physical cash I think is quite unusual.”
Faidzan Hassan in Iran
But that is where the story ends. Because after March 2015 the emails and the text messages end. Did the money come in? We may never know.
Did the Maldives government plot to bring in vast amounts of cash with the help of reclusive businessmen from across Asia? It certainly looks that way.
The Maldives government failed to respond to a request for comment at the time this article was written. Tan Kuan Yew, Abdul Hakam Hadi, Faidzan Hassan and Rosihan Yacub deny any wrongdoing and say no money was moved.
Source: Al Jazeera News"
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