Was 1MDB Najib or Jho Low running the show?

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Disgraced former prime minister Najib “1MDB” Razak now languishing in prison serving his sentence for stealing from the Malaysia Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), 1 Malaysia Development Berhad. - Facebook image

Was 1MDB Najib or Jho Low running the show?

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12, 2024: Business weekly magazine TheEdge has published damning details of how on how fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and his PetroSaudi collaborators had stolen billions - without the disgraced former prime minister Najib “1MDB” Razak’s knowlege?

Who then was the boss of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the then prime minister of Malaysia or Jho Low?

No News Is Bad News reproduces below an article on TheEdge owner Tong Kooi Ong revealing hios secret 2016 meeting with the FBI (Federak Bureau of Investigations) on 1MDB:

The Edge owner Tong Kooi Ong reveals in new book his secret 2016 meeting with the FBI on 1MDB; discloses how Nazir Razak persuaded him to meet Mahathir in London

By The Edge Malaysia / The Edge Malaysia

10 Oct 2024, 09:00 am

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10): The Edge Media Group owner Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong has revealed in a just released book titled Behind The Stories how he had secretly given information that prompted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to probe 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Tong wrote that in early September 2015, he engaged two Canadian lawyers, Tom and Andrea James, to pass encrypted copies of the PetroSaudi emails obtained from whistleblower Andre Xavier Justo to the FBI and the police in Switzerland as well as the Serious Fraud Office in the UK. Shortly after that, on Sept 19, 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI had opened an investigation paper on 1MDB.

Tong also wrote in the book that on May 5, 2016, he met senior FBI officer Robert Heuchling in Calgary, Canada, where he answered all the questions the latter asked about the contents of the emails. Two months later on July 20, 2016, then US attorney general Loretta Lynch announced to the world that billions had been stolen from 1MDB, and revealed how it was done and by whom.

Lynch’s announcement was significant, as 1MDB and the Malaysian government had since 2013 denied that fraud had taken place. It triggered action by regulators in Singapore and Switzerland, although authorities in Malaysia were still denying that anything wrong had happened.

In the book, Tong said he was reluctant about meeting former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as he was still resentful because he was forced to sell PhileoAllied Bank after Mahathir went after those who were deemed to be close to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who Mahathir sacked as the deputy prime minister in 1998. In the end, Tong was persuaded by Tan Sri Nazir Razak, and they met Mahathir on April 27, 2015 in London to seek help to stop more money from being stolen from 1MDB. As stated in his own book What’s in a Name, Nazir by then was frustrated that his brother and then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had refused to do anything.

In the book, Tong also elaborated on his meeting with Najib on March 6, 2015, where he provided nine pages of briefing notes on how fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and his PetroSaudi collaborators had stolen billions.

 

The cover of Behind The Stories (left), and Page 266. Tong provided to Najib nine pages of briefing notes on how Jho Low and his PetroSaudi collaborators had stolen billions.

In Behind The Stories, other behind-the-scenes information previously unknown about how The Edge published its exposes on 1MDB from 2013 are revealed. The book also chronicles other reporting work it did on Malaysia’s corporate world and politics since it started, and the heartbreaks and elation in the newsroom over the past 30 years.

The first five chapters which covered the period from 1993 to 2012 were written by Lilian Tan, while publisher Datuk Ho Kay Tat wrote two chapters — Rebooting The Newsroom and Sheraton Move & A Pandemic.

Tong’s chapter is titled 1MDB, The Edge and I — Beyond Reporting News, in which he also talked about the need for institutional reforms, and the need for a media that is credible and trusted to report the truth to prevent another 1MDB scandal.

Behind The Stories is available for purchase at Kinokuniya, books.theedgemalaysia.com and Shopee.