Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must answer what happened to the US$3.51 billion 1MDB said it has paid to IPIC or its subsidiaries

Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak told the Malaysian and international investment community that there were only “lapses in governance” in 1MDB but he has “ordered investigations into the company at a scale unprecedented in our nation's history”.

If it were indeed true that investigations were are an “unprecedented” scale, then the investigators must be the most incompetent ever seen in Malaysian history.  This is because to date, the key questions surrounding the various dodgy investments by 1MDB and the billions of ringgit misappropriated, often to entities owned by Jho Low have never been explained.

In one of the few questions with regards to 1MDB which was not rejected by the Parliament Speaker, I had asked Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who is also the Finance Minister, why did we assume the liabilities of IPIC’s guarantee for 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion worth of bonds when 1MDB claimed that we have already paid IPIC or its subsidiaries the sum of US$3.51 billion.

1MDB, via its President and CEO, Arul Kanda, testified to both the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee that 1MDB had already paid US$1.367 billion in collateral deposits in 2012, US$993 million in options termination compensation in 2014 and an additional US$1.15 billion in “top-up security deposit” also in 2014 to the IPIC group.

In the Finance Minister’s reply, he stated that 1MDB “is responsible for all future interest payments and the repayment of the principal for the 2 bonds” while the Ministry of Finance Incorporated has provided IPIC with the relevant “undertaking” and “indemnity”.  This effectively means that the Malaysian government has taken over the guarantee from IPIC.

The problem is, despite the boast of “investigations… at a scale unprecendented in our nation’s history”, Malaysians are no nearer to finding out what happened to the US$3.51 billion we have already paid.

And it is very apparent that the Prime Minister is also hiding this information via a convenient “lapse of governance” because he failed to answer this question in his parliamentary reply.

It is as if the US$3.51 billion paid to the IPIC group previously was but a minor detail, or an insignificant “lapse in governance” which didn’t require any justification or concern on the part of the Government.

Hence Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is only showing the thickness of his skin by trivialising the unprecedented scale of the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal and dismissing the Opposition protests as blowing the issue “out of proportion”.

Instead, the continued secrecy of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB and the refusal to entertain 1MDB questions in Parliament seriously only leads to the public believe that the US$3.51 billion above, and more other billions of ringgit have been misappropriated, or worse, stolen at “a scale unprecedented”.

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All Malaysians should heed the call by the MACC Chief Commissioner to be “brave” and file reports on the corruption, abuse of power and money laundering in 1MDB as exposed by the US DOJ

We wholly support MACC Chief Commissioner, Dato’ Dzulkifli Ahmad’s call for Malaysians to be “brave” to report all cases of corruption to the agency.

"Concerned Malaysians need not fear the MACC. We are friendly, so join us and report corruption and abuse of power.  Together we will bring up a society that is brave and will say 'no' to corruption and the corrupt," Dzulkifli told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on 17 June 2017.

He assured that those who want to remain anonymous will have their identities protected and launched the new anti-corruption hotline number 1800-88-6000.

Dato’ Dzulkifli’s call and toll-free number could not have come at a more opportune time.

Malaysians have been outraged and flabbergasted by the latest suit filed two days earlier by the US DOJ under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative for multi-billion ringgit worth of assets for funds laundered from 1MDB.

Not only did Malaysians discover that funds exceeding USD5.6 billion have been laundered by 1MDB officials, Jho Low and his associates, we discovered that more than US$200 million or approximately RM880 million have been used to purchase precious designer jewelry for their family and friends.

This included a US$27.3 million 22 carat pink diamond pendant necklace which was acquired by the wife of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1).  The Minister in Prime Minister’s office, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan has publicly stated that MO1 is none other than Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, and anyone who doesn’t know who MO1 is, is an “idiot”.

The DOJ also detailed how 1MDB forged financial statements, falsified audited financial statements, created multiple version of agreements for the very same transactions, colluded with foreign companies, lied to financial officers and authorities and outrageously pledged worthless securities as collateral to secure its US$975 million loan from the Deutsche Bank-led consortium.

The DOJ have included all these evidential details – telephone conversations, email correspondences, financial statements, transaction documents – were clearly painstakingly gathered by the DOJ from all international banking institutions involved with 1MDB as well as other relevant witnesses around the world.

Hence with the wealth of information and evidence contained in the 251-page suit, all Malaysians can now be “brave” and ring the toll-free 1800-88-6000 number to file a complaint against corruption, abuse of power and money laundering by 1MDB as well as against both MO1 and his wife.  After all, there is no bigger case of corruption plaguing the country today than the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

This will answer the Chief Commissioner's honourable plea for the public to “help [MACC] realise the anti-corruption revolution to ensure that our country is free from corruption and abuse of power within the next three years when we hit the year 2020".

However, the bigger question is, will MACC be equally “brave” as ordinary Malaysians to investigate MO1, his wife, 1MDB officers as well as Jho Low and his associates for their crimes against the nation?

Dato’ Dzulkifli Ahmad shall not be so cowardly as to abdicate from its constitutionally enshrined responsibilities by passing the buck to the Royal Malaysian Police, as he so-declared at the same press conference.

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Malaysians shamed as Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali gets schooled by the United States Department of Justice

The updated second asset seizure suit filed by the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative contained even more outrageous exposés on how 1MDB funds have been misappropriated to those who are in power as well as their associates.

Besides some of the juiciest scandalous details befitting tabloid headlines around the world, the DOJ also took pains to elaborate how the funds exceeding USD5.6 billion have been laundered by 1MDB officials, Jho Low and his associates.

The DOJ detailed how 1MDB forged financial statements, falsified audited financial statements, created multiple version of agreements for the very same transactions, colluded with foreign companies, lied to financial officers and authorities and outrageously pledged worthless securities as collateral to secure its US$975 million loan from the Deutsche Bank-led consortium.

All these evidential details – telephone conversations, email correspondences, financial statements, transaction documents – were clearly painstakingly gathered by the DOJ from all international banking institutions involved with 1MDB as well as other relevant witnesses around the world.

And yet, the first and only response from our Attorney-General, Tan Sri Apandi Ali to date has been to rue DOJ’s “insinuations that have been made against the prime minister of criminal wrongdoing”.

You are wrong, Mr Attorney-General.  The US DOJ suit did not mention or even highlight any specific wrongdoing by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.  The US DOJ merely detailed how more than US$5 billion from 1MDB, an entity owned by the Malaysian government have been laundered around the world by a Low Taek Jho and his associates.

In the process, the US DOJ merely mentioned that some of the ultimate beneficiaries of the laundering exercise were Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, to the tune of US$732 million and his wife, who received a gift of a pink diamond necklace worth more than US$30 million.

Like Jho’s girlfriend, Miranda Kerr who received multi-million dollar diamond studded jewelry, or “friend”, Leonardo DiCaprio who received multi-million dollar worth of rare movie memorabilia and paintings, they may be oblivious to the fact that the items were purchased with laundered funds.

Perhaps the Prime Minister and his wife are equally innocent and all they need to do is to return the money or surrender the jewelry, just as Leonardo have done.  Hence, it is misguided for Tan Sri Apandi Ali to conclude the DOJ case as one against the Prime Minister.

The real question then is for Tan Sri Apandi Ali to investigate the money laundering exercise carried out by mastermind Jho Low and the abetting 1MDB officials.  The Attorney-General cannot deny the overwhelming prima facie evidence presented by the DOJ on the above.

In fact, the DOJ even presented how the above crimes have broken Malaysian laws:

942. Misappropriating public funds by a public official is a criminal offense under Malaysian law, as enumerated by the Penal Code of Malaysia, including but not limited to sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 405 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or agent), 166 (Public servant disobeying a direction of the law, with intent to cause injury to any person (including a company)), 415 (cheating), 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may be thereby caused to a person whose interest the offender is bound to protect), and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property); and the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Act 2009, including sections 16, 17, and 23. Copies of these laws are set forth in Attachment B.

943. Bank fraud is a criminal offense under Malaysian law, as enumerated by the Penal Code of Malaysia, including but not limited to section 415 (cheating), 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may be thereby caused to a person whose interest the offender is bound to protect), and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property).

Malaysians are embarrassed by the fact that our top prosecuting officer had to be schooled by foreign jurisdictions on the laws of this country.

Instead of crying “frustration” that “the AG's Chambers was not informed or alerted by DOJ of this action”, Malaysians would like to know if the AG has bothered to even initiate requests for evidence from the US authorities since the DOJ filed their first asset seizure suit nearly a year ago?

Or is it a case for the AG to see no evil, hear no evil and hence speak no evil?

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Tan Sri Irwan Serigar, as both the Treasurer-General and 1-year old Chairman of 1MDB must investigate and explain the scandalous misappropriations exposed by the US DOJ

The updated second asset seizure suit filed by the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative contained even more outrageous exposés on how 1MDB funds have been misappropriated to those who are in power as well as their associates.

Besides hundreds of millions more in the acquisition of luxury properties around the world and prized art masterpieces, the US DOJ is seizing The Equanimity, one of the most luxurious ships in the world costing more than USD250 million belonging to Jho Low.

Even more scandalous was more than USD200 million spent on precious jewelry including more than USD30 million for a rare pink diamond necklace for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

Besides some of the juiciest scandalous details befitting tabloid headlines around the world, the DOJ also took pains to elaborate how the funds exceeding USD5.6 billion have been laundered by 1MDB officials, Jho Low and his associates.

The previous DOJ suit in July last year has already outlined how USD1.83 billion invested with Petrosaudi International, USD1.367 billion paid to a fraudulent British Virgin Islands incorporated Aabar Investments and US$1.56 billion from 1MDB Global Investment Limited transferred to bogus investment funds, were laundered.

The updated suit published for the first time how an additional USD855 million borrowed from Deutsche Bank was raised and laundered in 2014 via another fraudulent Aabar Investments incorporated in Seychelles.

The exposé which reads like a Robert Ludlum political thriller, detailed how 1MDB managed forged documents including audited financial statements, created multiple version of agreements for the very same transactions, lied to financial officers and authorities and outrageously pledged worthless securities as collateral to secure its US$975 million loan from the Deutsche Bank-led consortium.

Tan Sri Irwan Serigar was only appointed as the Chairman of 1MDB last year to replace disgraced Board of Directors who resigned en-mass. He was not involved with any of the above shenanigans. He, who is also the Treasurer-General, the most senior Finance Ministry official in the country, must take the bull by the horns and uncover all the skeletons in the closet.

The 1MDB management was quick to dismiss the US DOJ allegations as “not backed by evidence”.  Surely, as a most experience civil servant, Tan Sri Irwan Serigar would not take the management denials at face value, especially in the face of such a detailed exposé of how the 1MDB funds were siphoned.

All it takes is for Tan Sri Irwan Serigar to call for an emergency 1MDB board meeting and demand for the relevant bank statements to be presented to discover if the US DOJ was only exposing the truth or they have been misled by all the international banks in the world who cooperated with the investigations.

Will Tan Sri Irwan Serigar do the right and honourable thing for the sake of Malaysian tax-payers, whose money he has been entrusted to manage?  Or will he succumb to the very reason why the previous Chairman and Board had to resign in disgrace, the failure to perform their fiduciary duties to keep a rogue management in check, to prevent fraud and abuse, especially to the scale of tens of billions of ringgit.

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1MDB “Settlement” with IPIC an affirmation by 1MDB that they have lost US$3.51 billion purportedly paid to IPIC and its subsidiary, Aabar Investment PJS

1MDB and IPIC have finally announced the conclusion of the much awaited “settlement” to the London arbitration proceedings filed by IPIC against 1MDB.

What is most interesting, who the winner and loser are, can be clearly deduced by their respective statements.

1MDB’s statement was short and sweet, providing scant details other than the fact that “1MDB will, amongst others, make certain payments to IPIC and will assume responsibility for all future interest and principal payments for two bonds issued by 1MDB Group companies due in 2022”.  No figures are stated.

IPIC on the other hand made a detailed announcement to the London Stock Exchange clearly stating that

(i) IPIC will receive US$1.205 billion in 2 equal tranches on 31 July 2017 and 31 December 2017.

(ii) 1MDB and MoF Inc., will assume all responsibility of future interest and principal payments of US$3.5 billion worth of bonds, previously guaranteed by IPIC.

The implication between the 2 statements is staggering.

1MDB tried to paint a rosy picture of the settlement – that the dispute has been resolved with no hard details.  On the other hand, IPIC’s clearly showed that they got exactly what they wanted, the return of US$1.205 billion worth of cash advances to 1MDB since June 2015 and to discharge itself entirely as a guarantor for 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion worth of bonds.

However, of greater significance is the fact that 1MDB’s concession to the above settlement terms is a direct affirmation and confirmation that 1MDB have lost US$3.51 billion worth of payments which have purportedly been paid to IPIC and its subsidiary, Aabar Investments PJS.

Last year, 1MDB and its CEO, Arul Kanda, have informed the Auditor-General (AG) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the following payments were made to Aabar Investments PJS Limited, a separate company registered in the British Virgin Islands (“Aabar(BVI)”).  It has already been widely known, and confirmed by the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) that Aabar (BVI) is a fraudulent impostor company.  However, 1MDB and Arul Kanda continued to insist that it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the IPIC group.

As outlined on Page 92 of the PAC Report on 1MDB, 1MDB claimed it has paid Aabar (BVI) the amounts of

(i) US$1.367 billion as a “security deposit” for the US$3.5 billion of bonds in 2012 

(ii) US$993 billion for the termination of options granted to IPIC or Aabar in November 2014; and

(iii) Additional sums of US$855 million and US$295 million as “top-up security deposit” in September and December 2014 respectively.

These sums, as emphasized in the PAC Report, could not be verified by the AG as 1MDB has refused to provide the relevant proof and documentation of the transactions, despite repeated requests over months.

The question then is, if we have indeed paid the above sums, totalling US$3.51 billion to IPIC or its subsidiaries, why then are we allowing IPIC to relieve itself an ultimate guarantor for the bonds and why is MOF Inc, assuming the US$3.5 billion of liability?

Is 1MDB and Arul Kanda telling us that despite having paid US$3.51 billion to IPIC, we still owe the US$3.5 billion we borrowed?  Putting it simply, are Malaysians to fork out a whopping US$7.01 billion to settle 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion of bonds?!

The only explanation for the incredulous situation is that the US$3.51 billion was never paid to IPIC as claimed.  Instead, the funds were misappropriated or laundered as documented widely in the US DOJ charges against Jho Low and company, and Singapore prosecution its local banking officers.

Therefore, we call upon the Prime Minister, who is also the Minister of Finance, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to come clean on the discrepancy resulting from the “settlement” with IPIC, since Malaysians have now to pay more than double what was actually borrowed by 1MDB.

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Open Letter by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara to Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani on Tuesday, 20 March 2017

Dear Minister,

Thank you so much for your Open Letter addressed to me which was issued yesterday.  I am not sure whether I should be honoured to have received such a letter from a Minister for the very first time in my 9 years as a Member of Parliament.

Dato’,

You are extremely unhappy apparently because I called you a “liar” and accused you of “covering up for the Prime Minister”.  I checked my facts again and I’m more than happy to stand by my accusations.

Earlier this year, you told the media repeatedly that the Finance Ministry (MOF) would not take over any of the 1MDB’s debts.  This was a specific response to my question raised in mid-January as to whether the MOF took over 1MDB’s RM800 million loan from SOCSO and RM2.4 billion sukuk.

It was only when I received the convoluted parliamentary reply in the current sitting, I could conclude that MOF did indeed take over these debts.  The sad thing about the reply from the Minister of Finance was that it was clearly written in a way to obfuscate the truth.

You then dug a deeper hole for yourself by arguing that the RM3.2 billion of debt was an “operating debt” belonging to 1MDB’s wholly-owned subsidiary, 1MDB Real Estate (1MDB RE) and hence was not considered as 1MDB’s debt.  I then said that “no Finance Minister worth his salt would argue that the ‘operating debts’ of a wholly-owned subsidiary does not belong to the parent company’s accounting books”.

I also proved with facts published in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report, extracted from the Auditor-General’s (AG) report that more than 87% or RM2.8 billion of the RM3.2 billion of 1MDB RE borrowings never went towards the development of 1MDB’s real estate properties.  Hence I asked why did the MOF not insist that these advances to 1MDB be repaid?

Dato’,

You then went on to tell an audience at a MIDF lunch talk that the Malaysian government couldn’t press charges against 1MDB personalities “without complete information”.  You supported your claim by saying the the Auditor-General and the PAC could not point to anything specifically wrong with 1MDB.

Again, I pointed to specific sections of the PAC Report which clearly concluded that the 1MDB top management has on dozens of occasions – lied and misled the Board of Directors, defied the decisions of the Board or worse, acted without the Board’s authority, all of which are legal offences.  The PAC even asked the authorities to investigate the CEO, Datuk Shahrol Halmi and other officers involved for the above wrongdoings.  However, a year later, Datuk Shahrol Halmi remains comfortably as of today, a Director of PEMANDU agency in the Prime Minister’s Department.

You added in your letter that, “as far as the government is concerned, there is nothing to hide and nothing to cover up.” Then, I ask you, if so, why do you not propose for the Cabinet refusing to declassify the ‘harmless’ Auditor-General’s Report?

However, instead of answering all of the above questions, you ask me to “give it a rest”.

You opined that 1MDB is the most scrutinised entity by all enforcement agencies in Malaysia. However, you fail to also disclose that every single investigating agency was hampered and disrupted.

When the PAC announced that we were summoning Jho Low for questioning, the PAC Chairman was soon replaced by Datuk Hasan Arifin who promptly reversed the decision.  Datuk Hasan, even responded that he has to “cari makan” when asked by the media if the Prime Minister would be summoned.

Despite the diligence of the Auditor-General’s Office, key documents such as 1MDB’s bank statements for its overseas subsidiaries were not handed over to the AG.  Neither did Arul Kanda or Datuk Shahrol hand over many other documents they promised when requested by the PAC.

The biggest farce must be the “Super-Taskforce” investigating 1MDB comprising of the Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police, the MACC Chief Commissioner and the Bank Negara Governor  set up by the Prime Minister himself.  Did you forget that just as the then Attorney-General discovered shenanigans relating to the Prime Minister, he was promptly “retired” on spurious ‘health’ reasons?  As if on queue, the new Attorney-General effectively dissolved the “Super-Taskforce” and even went to the extent of instructing the MACC to stop any further investigations on the matter.

Dato’,

You started your letter whining that you are merely working “serve the nation” by taking “positive and proactive” steps.

Perhaps let me gently remind you that there is a difference between ‘serving the nation’ and ‘serving the Prime Minister’, by covering up the scandal so that the truth gets swept under the carpet and the crooks get away scot-free.

Do you not realise that we are now a renown kleptocracy and how damaging that is for our country?  Everyone who has taken an interest in the affairs of Malaysia knows from the documents presented by the United States Department of Justice and the Singapore Courts that US$731 million from 1MDB, found its way through dodgy investment funds and deceptive offshore companies into the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

Do you not think that to “serve the nation”, we must work to revive our heavily-tarnished global reputation?  And do you not think that the only way we can remove the kleptocracy label from Malaysia is not by sweeping the truth under the carpet but instead ensure that the kleptocrats are charged and appropriately punished?

In fact, if you really want to take “positive and proactive steps” to help the nation, why haven’t you made a claim for the US$1 billion worth of assets being seized by the United States which were acquired with funds laundered and stolen from 1MDB?  Why is the Government still keeping up the pretences that 1MDB did not lose these billions of dollars?

Dear Minister,

The above are just some of the many reasons why I won’t give the 1MDB issue a rest.  The issue doesn’t deserve to be rested because you and your fellow Ministers have refused to answer simple questions and more importantly, the crooks who audaciously misappropriated more than US$5 billion are still at large.

Any elected representative with any sense of morality and integrity, who believes in protecting the interest of the man-on-the-street and who wants justice meted out to criminals who rob the country will never let the matter rest until the truth is found.

I am sure that my voters in Petaling Jaya Utara and all right-thinking Malaysians would overwhelmingly back my dogged persistence and relentless pursuit to ensure that Malaysia’s corrupt leaders and its kleptocratic government are made accountable for their crimes.

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Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani must think that Malaysians are born yesterday to buy his excuse that the Government “can't press charges on 1MDB without a full picture”.

I was stunned by the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani’s remarks to the media that the Government “can’t press charges on 1MDB without a full picture”.  I had certainly expected better of him, as he was a known critic of 1MDB before his appointment as a Minister.

"The transfer of the money to the accounts and so on, it’s not that. That’s only half the story. If you want to charge people, you need the complete story," Johari said at a luncheon talk organised by Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd which was reported by the Edge Financial Daily yesterday.

Of course, we need the complete story in order to charge any person for a crime.  However, the question is there must be a concerted effort to investigate the crime. 

From what we can see happening in Malaysia at this point of time, there is no attempt at all to investigate the crimes everyone can see which have taken place in Malaysia.

The United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) has clearly presented all documentary evidence of how funds amounting to more than US$5.6 billion have been siphoned from 1MDB and laundered overseas.  This included more than US$1 billion which have been siphoned to Good Star Limited which was owned by Jho Low, whose whereabouts are a mystery today.  The 1MDB management had persistently tried to hide this fact by lying that Good Star Limited was owned by 1MDB’s joint venture partner, Petrosaudi International Limited.

In Singapore, bankers have been sent to jail and bank licences have been withdrawn for facilitating the above same transactions.  This has included funds which has passed through to and from a Tanore Finance Corporation via its bank account with Falcon Private Bank to the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

And yet, despite the obvious and ease of accessing all the relevant evidence of grand corruption, the Second Finance Minister has the cheek to tell Malaysians that the Government “can’t press charges without the full picture”.

Dato’ Seri Johari even had the gall to dismiss the case in Singapore as not having involved Malaysians. "The governance issue happened in Singapore, not in Malaysia. And those characters are actually Singaporeans,” he said.

The Minister is obviously pretending very hard to be ignorant and stupid because the Singapore cases clearly named the parties who laundered the funds included Jho Low, his father Tan Sri Larry Low and other associates who were Malaysians.  Evidence including banking transactions were presented to the Court demonstrating how these funds stolen from 1MDB were misappropriated, including the amounts ending up in the Prime Minister’s bank account.

If the Minister is really clueless about the evidence and what took place in the US DOJ and Singapore Courts, I will be most happy to share the information and documents with the Minister.

However, please don’t tell half-truths to the Malaysian public that "even the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) and AG (auditor-general) were unable to specifically tell what went wrong.

The AG has discovered many wrongs which were cited in the AG’s Report on 1MDB which the Cabinet has decided to classify under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).  This was despite the fact that 1MDB had refused full cooperation with the AG by denying the AG access to crucial banking documents of its overseas subsidiaries.

But even what little revealed in the PAC Report was sufficient for the PAC to conclude massive wrong-doing on the part of the management.  The PAC has specifically demanded that Datuk Shahrol Halmi be investigated for his role in causing the billions of ringgit of losses to 1MDB and the Malaysian Government. 

It has been nearly a year since the report has been tabled in Parliament. Why hasn’t any action at all be taken against Datuk Shahrol Halmi?  In fact, why is Datuk Shahrol Halmi still a Director at the PEMANDU agency in the Prime Minister’s Department?

The reality is, not only has the Government made no effort into investigating the scandal, it is blocking all attempts to investigate the crime. For example, the Attorney-General abused his power by instructing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from further investigating the US$681 million or more which were discovered in the Prime Minister’s bank account. Subsequently, he rejected a request for cooperation by the Swiss Attorney-General to investigate the case.

Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani may not have been involved in the attempts to stall or stop the investigations, as he was only appointed a Minister in July last year.  However, he should not try to belittle the intelligence of ordinary Malaysians or take us for fools by claiming that the Government can’t press charges because it doesn’t have a “full picture”.

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Bank Negara’s inaction and reticence, in stark contrast with Singaporean authorities' actions to protect the integrity of their banking system, abets the indictment of Malaysia as a global kleptocracy

I had on 31 October asked the Minister of Finance to state the actions taken by Bank Negara over the conduct of Ambank bankers, Joanne Yu and Cheah Tek Kuang for covering up money laundering transactions relating to the 1MDB.

The question was raised because The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had on 6 September 2016 made very specific allegations against Ambank Malaysia and its officials of facilitating and abetting money-laundering when billions of ringgit was transferred into the bank accounts of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

In making the allegations, the prestigious financial paper substantiated the claims with private conversations between senior Ambank officials with Low Taek Jho, who was carrying out the transactions on behalf of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister had given Low access to his accounts, according to investigative documents sighted by WSJ. His primary contact at AmBank was Joanna Yu, the banker he had warned via BlackBerry to communicate discreetly. Cheah Tek Kuang, a senior AmBank executive and adviser to the bank’s chairman, handled the account personally, the BlackBerry messages indicate.

According to WSJ, Low sent hampers of food to Yu and lunched with her at noodle shops, according to the phone messages. He kept reinforcing the need for secrecy: “v v important no one should know in ambank besides u or cheah or get hold of statement,” one message said. “Cause if it gets on internet where funds were from then headache.”

Yu even made recommendations on which US correspondent bank – Wells Fargo or JP Morgan will raise less questions involving the transfers.

These messages clearly indicated a conspiracy by the above parties to at best, hide the transactions from scrutiny, and at worst, blatant masking of the illicit transactions as legitimate ones.

In his written reply, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak appeared to confirm the above allegations when he said that “Bank Negara has undertaken investigations on financial institutions relating to 1MDB under Financial Services Act 2013, Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, and Anti Money Laundering Act 2001… Based on the investigation results, enforcement actions have been duly executed by Bank Negara with the power provided to it under the law.”

However, we were never informed of what actions have been taken against Ambank or the bankers who have facilitated these illicit transactions.  In fact, as far as we are aware, both Joanne Yu and Cheah Tek Kuang are free men.

Cheah Tek Kuang who was the Group Managing Director of Ambank until his retirement in 2012 remains an advisor to the Chairman’s Office the Bank according to publicly available records.  He is also the Chairman of Berjaya Sports Toto and an Independent Director at IOI Group.

If Bank Negara has indeed taken action against him for abetting money laundering offences, can he still be Chairman and Director of publicly listed companies?

Bank Negara’s absence of any visible actions against Banks and its officers who were complicit in money laundering offences is in stark contrast with the actions taken by the Singapore authorities to defend the integrity of their banking system.

Former private banker Yak Yew Chee, who dealt with Jho Low and 1MDB has been jailed 18 weeks and fined S$24,000 for forging reference letters vouching for the Low family and for failing to report suspicious transactions involving tens of millions of dollars coursing through BSI bank in Singapore.  Yak will also surrender S$7.5 million to the State “to demonstrate his genuine contrition”.

Another former private banker with the Swiss BSI Bank, Yeo Jiawei is currently on trial over four charges for perverting the course of justice and another seven counts for money laundering, cheating and forgery over the same Jho Low and 1MDB-related scandal.

Unfortunately, the new Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim’s silence and reticence in tackling the above money laundering scandal will only serve to enhance Malaysia’s reputation as global kleptocracy.

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Ministerial replies in Parliament over the multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal, when there were replies, has made a mockery of our august institution

When travelling overseas, Malaysians are now inundated with questions as to how Dato’ Seri Najib Razak remains firmly in power as the Prime Minister of Malaysia despite a few billion ringgit of funds which were misappropriated from a state owned investment firm finding its way into his personal account.

Foreigners are bewildered as to how our so-called democratic system could tolerate such unprecedented excesses.

The reason is simple.  Our parliamentary institution is a mere facade whose sole existence is to lend legitimacy to those who wield the ultimate power.  It is a pesky inconvenience which Dato’ Seri Najib Razak needs to tolerate to continue to present a semblance of a modern progressive nation.

When asked of the Prime Minister’s near total absence from Parliamentary sittings, the Honourable Speaker defended Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, claiming that the Prime Minister would have more important things to do than “to sit here and see the same face and then they (MPs) ask irrelevant questions”.

If even the Speaker of the House treats the elected Members of Parliaments with such contempt, little could be expected of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are left to respond to the obviously “irrelevant questions” from MPs.

Questions were asked about the actions taken by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission pursuant the charges laid out by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to seize more than US$1 billion of assets laundered by Low Taek Jho and the Prime Minister’s stepson, Riza Aziz with funds misappropriated from 1MDB.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Razali Ibrahim responded that there is no need for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to question Riza Aziz, the stepson of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, as he is not being probed for graft..

"For the MACC, Riza is not under a corruption probe so there is no need for the MACC to summon him (for questioning)", he said.

And when MP for Bayan Baru, Sim Tze Tzin asked about DOJ’s allegations that Riza had bought luxury properties overseas with 1MDB funds, Razali audaciously replied, "what's wrong if people with lots of money buy things?"

Obviously the point that these funds were stolen from funds managed by the Government did not matter to the Minister.

Separately the MP for Puchong, Gobind Singh asked about the need to re-open MACC’s investigations into the billions of ringgit found in the Prime Minister’s personal bank account in the light of the DOJ filings. Datuk Razali Ibrahim astonishingly responded that the concluded MACC probe on Dato’ Seri Najib Abdul Razak's RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ did not look into the origins of the money.

"We (the MACC) were only looking into corruption, not where the money came from,” he said.

"We can't make assumptions about 1MDB, because of things in the US and Switzerland… They may be looking at the money trail, we only look at the question of corruption," he added while wrapping up his part of the Budget 2017 debate speech, focusing on the MACC and Felda.

The answer is as bizarre as it is dumbfounding.  How can you rule out corruption if you fail to investigate the money trail?  In fact, the admission by the Minister that MACC did not bother investigating the money trail to trace the origins of the funds which ended up in the Prime Minister’s accounts only goes to justify the call for MACC to re-open investigations because they have failed to perform their duties thoroughly and competently.

However, the fact that the Ministers can get away with such nonchalant and nonsensical replies in the highest legislative body of the land epitomises the collapse of Malaysia’s democratic institutions.

With a cabinet full of Ministers that know no shame, it explains why despite the severity and credibility of the corruption and embezzlement allegations against the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak remains firmly in grip of power.

The only way to remove Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and the ruling Barisan Nasional, is via the ballot box, even if Malaysians have to overcome the unfair electoral system.

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The Royal Malaysian Police and Bank Negara must investigate latest allegations that Ambank officials actively conspired with Jho Low to launder funds into Dato’ Seri Najib Razak's personal bank accounts

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had on 6 September 2016 made very specific allegations against Ambank Malaysia and its officials of facilitating and abetting money-laundering when billions of ringgit was transferred into the bank accounts of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

In making the allegations, the prestigious financial paper substantiated the claims with private conversations between senior Ambank officials with Low Taek Jho, who was carrying out the transactions on behalf of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister gave Low access to his accounts, according to investigative documents sighted by WSJ. His primary contact at AmBank was Joanna Yu, the banker he had warned via BlackBerry to communicate discreetly. Cheah Tek Kuang, a senior AmBank executive and adviser to the bank’s chairman, handled the account personally, the BlackBerry messages indicate.

On the assumption that the messages were genuine, they clearly indicated a conspiracy by the above parties to at best hide the transactions from scrutiny, and at worst, blatant masking of the illicit transactions as legitimate ones.

According to WSJ, Low sent hampers of food to Yu and lunched with her at noodle shops, according to the phone messages. He kept reinforcing the need for secrecy: “v v important no one should know in ambank besides u or cheah or get hold of statement,” one message said. “Cause if it gets on internet where funds were from then headache.”

Yu even made recommendations on which US correspondent bank will raise less questions involving the transfers.  They discussed whether to use Wells Fargo & Co. or J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

“Can do JP, but may raise ques too…suspect better keep to wachovia,” Ms. Yu wrote, referring to a unit of Wells Fargo.

“Okay, wachovia then,” he replied. The transfer went through the Wells Fargo unit.

The above conversations raises major concerns of a high-level conspiracy to enable the money-laundering transactions to take place without being questioned or detected.

As the parties responsible for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Act (AMLA), the Royal Malaysian Police and particularly, Bank Negara must take immediate actions to investigate the above very serious allegations.

They must be investigated, and if found true, concrete actions must be taken to protect the integrity of our banking institutions and financial system.  Otherwise, the hard-earned reputation of Bank Negara and Malaysia will take a severe beating.

Instead, Malaysia may become an infamous haven for the rich and powerful criminals to abuse our banking institutions to hide and launder their ill-gotten wealth.

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Has the PM’s Department decided to award the East Coast Rail Link to China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for an inflated cost of RM60 billion without any tender?

The Sarawak Report has exposed new documents which alleged that the Malaysian Government is in the midst of finalising a new contract to award China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for a whopping sum of RM60 billion.  The East Coast Economic Region Development Council had previously expected the cost of the project to be ‘only’ RM30 billion.

Malaysians are taken aback by the speculated cost for the project and cannot be blamed for giving Sarawak Report the benefit of the doubt because the whistle-blower website has been proven right time and again, especially with regards to its reporting of the multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal.

As a measure of comparison, the 329km Ipoh-Padang Besar double-tracking project was awarded to MMC-Gamuda consortium for RM14.5 billion in 2003.  More recently in December 2015, the 179km Gemas-Johor Bahru link was awarded to China Railway Engineering Corporation for the sum of RM7.1 billion.  On average, the railway projects cost RM44.0 million and RM39.8 million per kilometre respectively.

However, at the cost of RM60 billion, the 620km ECRL will cost a monstrous RM96.8 billion per kilometre to construct.  That would mean that the ECRL will cost 120% and 143% more than northern and southern double-tracking projects respectively!

The massively inflated alleged cost of the ECRL without a tender exercise lends credence to the Sarawak Report documents which detailed how the “excess” was to bailout the debt-stricken 1MDB.

The documents reveal that CCCC, upon the award of the inflated contract, will via a nominated “credit-worthy” company pay 1MDB the sum of US$850 million (RM3.4bn) for the purposes of repayment for International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) advances, and assume the debt of 1MDB subsidiaries amounting to US$4.78 billion (RM19.4bn) inclusive of interest which had been guaranteed by IPIC.

These payments are clearly meant to go towards the settlement with IPIC which has taken 1MDB to the London arbitration court for the amount of US$6.5 billion.

More interestingly, part of the sum from the inflated cost will go towards acquiring substantial stakes in fugitive Low Taek Jho-linked companies, Putrajaya Perdana Bhd and Loh & Loh Corporation Bhd for US$244 million and US$71 million respectively.

In addition, there is a proposed payment by CCCC to a “consultancy/strategic/comms services” company and another “nominated company” for the amounts of US$65 million and US$200 million respectively.  The payment for the unnamed mysterious “nominated company” was to be made upon the official signing of the ECRL contract expected in December this year.  Hence, it appears that even in the exercise of a desperate bailout, generous commissions will be paid to certain parties, perhaps to continue their lifestyles of luxury and debauchery.

In effect, the Najib administration is merely ECRL as an excuse and an outrageous cover up to mask additional borrowings of RM30 billion in order to repay the billions embezzled from 1MDB.  Most tragically, it means that ordinary Malaysians as the Government will finance the entire ECRL project with more crippling debt.  We are merely covering up a gigantic hole by digging ourselves an even bigger hole.

We call upon Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to confirm or deny that the award of the contract to CCCC is in the works, and provide transparent and accountable justifications for the award in the absence of any competitive tender exercise.

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Dato’ Seri Najib Razak should stop pulling the wool over the rakyat’s eyes with purported social welfare programmes by 1MDB which are in actual reality, funded by Malaysian taxpayers

It beggars belief that the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak could still heap praise on 1MDB for “making immense contribution to social welfare programmes”.

He announced that 1MDB Foundation sponsored RM10.4 million for 1,100 pilgrims to go to for pilgrimage this year; recipients of which were present with Najib in a Putrajaya mosque today to receive their offer letters yesterday

The 1MDB Foundation contribution to social welfare is a farce designed with the specific intent to mask the fact that 1MDB has made billions of ringgit of losses, as a result of an international money laundering exercise involving the Prime Minister himself.

If 1MDB had made real profits and subsequently allocated part of these profits to charitable causes, then the efforts by the state-owned company should certainly be applauded.

However, 1MDB which had funded itself entirely by debt by borrowing at its peak, RM55 billion ringgit, never made a sen of cash profits in its entire 6 years of existence. 

This means that 1MDB had effectively paid for its “immense contribution to social welfare programmes” with borrowings as a public relations exercise to repair the damage to its reputation caused by its massive losses and scandalous misappropriations.

Worse, because 1MDB was cash-strapped and unable to fulfil its debt obligations on a timely basis, government agencies were forced to step into bail out 1MDB.

For example, Tabung Haji – the pilgrimage fund, was called upon to acquire a piece of 0.64 acres of land from 1MDB in Tun Razak Exchange for the exorbitant price of RM188.5 million or approximately RM2,774 per square feet in 2015.  1MDB had earlier acquired the land from the Government at the bargain basement price of only RM64 per square feet.

It is of the greatest irony the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak boasted of 1MDB’s RM10.4 million contribution to the 1,100 pilgrims – who were supposed to be funded by Tabung Haji, when Tabung Haji has been ripped off of more than RM184 million from the above transaction alone.

What’s more, now that 1MDB is unable to service its debts and is faced with a US$6.5 billion suit from Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) in London, the tax-payers is now faced with another round of a multi-billion dollar bailout exercise by the Ministry of Finance which had explicitly or implicitly guaranteed the above debts.

Worse, the United States Department of Justice has now provided clear evidence of how US$731 million belonging to 1MDB was deposited in the Prime Minister’s personal bank account between 2011 and 2013.  Hence it is clear that what has been distributed to the poor in Malaysia is dwarfed by what Dato’ Seri Najib Razak received.

Therefore we call upon the Prime Minister to stop putting on a false front on 1MDB.  The public relations exercise is doomed to fail because the facts and evidence of the multi-billion dollar embezzlement from 1MDB is clear for all to see.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak will serve the Rakyat better by explaining why he took US$731 million from 1MDB and why did he allow his son-in-law, Riza Aziz and the latter’s best friend, Low Taek Jho to pillage 1MDB to buy luxury properties, pay for gambling debts, acquire an aircraft, collect art masterpieces and finance their decadent lifestyles.

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Malaysia now global laughing stock as the US DOJ moves to seize some US$1 billion of assets stolen from 1MDB, while the Malaysian Government remain inexplicably oblivious to the grand theft

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the US Federal prosecutors are poised to launch one of the largest asset seizures in U.S. history as they step up their investigation into billions of dollars siphoned away from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The US Department of Justice are expected to seize more than $1 billion worth of assets, the single largest seizure in the history of the United States, which are expected to include properties and other assets purchased with money allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

Reuters have now confirmed the WSJ report. The U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits today saying that over $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.

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.

Those named included Riza Aziz, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s step-son, Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, and Abu Dhabi government officials Khadem al-Qubaisi and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.

More interestingly, the charge claimed that funds misappropriated from 1MDB were transferred to Petrosaudi, a company that had a joint venture with 1MDB, and thereafter to a high-ranking official in the Malaysian government it identified only as "Malaysian Official One".

The assets involved in the case include penthouses, mansions, artwork and even a private jet.

In the past, the Najib administration has consistently dismissed the WSJ allegations as “unsubstantiated malicious allegations” as part of a “global conspiracy” to “bring down a democratically elected government”.  The Malaysian investigating agencies took the que and refused to conduct any genuine investigations into the monstrous heist despite mounting evidence and damning Auditor-General and Public Accounts Committee Reports.

However, the shit has hit the fan with the latest actions taken by the United States authorities.  Surely, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak will not now turn around and accuse his golfing buddy, President Obama of being part of a global malicious conspiracy to bring down his Government?

As a result, we are now the butt of jokes to the world. The US authorities has moved to seize some US$1 billion of assets stolen and misappropriated from 1MDB, and yet the victim, the Malaysian Government insists that we weren’t robbed.

We call upon the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to chastise our local regulatory authorities for their ineptitude in getting to the bottom the scandal which isn’t only the largest in the history of Malaysia, but also has set the ignominious record of being the largest seizure in the history of United States.

The Prime Minister must instruct the police and the MACC to follow the leads provided by the Department of Justice to charge all the relevant parties who have stolen billions from Malaysians, including but not limited to Riza Aziz and Jho Low. 

Most importantly, they must obtain and discover, who is the “Malaysian Official One” who has been accused of siphoning billions of ringgit of 1MDB’s borrowed wealth.

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Who is Datuk Hasan Arifin trying to protect when he works so hard to hide the fact that Good Star Limited belongs to Jho Low?

The Malaysian public can now see for themselves the types of challenges the opposition members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) faced when dealing with a Chairman the likes of Datuk Hasan Arifin.

Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Datuk Hasan Arifin made the outright denial that Good Star Limited belonged to Low Taek Jho, or better known as Jho Low.  Good Star Limited has received US$1.03 billion of direct payments from 1MDB from 2009 to 2011.

“Selaku Pengerusi PAC saya ingin menafikan bahawa pemilik Good Star Limited adalah Low Taek Jho seperti yang dinyatakan oleh akhbar Wall Street Journal dengan mengaitkan surat Bank Negara terhadap Jawatankuasa ini,” he said.

This outrageous denial was made despite the Bank Negara disclosed that 2 foreign regulatory authorities confirmed to Bank Negara that the sole beneficiary of Good Star Limited was Jho Low and the ownership status never changed since its inception in June 2009.

Instead, he chose to dismiss Bank Negara’s letter claiming that the information provided is of “intelligence grade” (bertaraf risikan).  Hence, since the PAC is not an “intelligence agency”, we are unable to verify the authenticity and truth of the information.

This must be the most gravity-defying acrobatic twist of logic from the Chairman who was only appointed to lead the committee in October last year.  An “intelligence grade” piece of information does not require an intelligence agency to make use of the intelligence reports.

On the contrary, the “intelligence grade” information should be taken as the likely truth unless otherwise proven because it was intelligence received from Bank Negara’s counterparts in foreign countries.

Furthermore, if “intelligence grade” information from Bank Negara cannot be believed, then why should the PAC Chairman accept at face value the letter from Petrosaudi acknowledging Good Star Limited as its subsidiary by mere assertion, unsupported by any documentary evidence? We don’t even know if the letter provided by 1MDB is genuine! Is he claiming that Bank Negara far less trustworthy than 1MDB, the very company the PAC is tasked to investigate?

Datuk Hasan Arifin then argued that because the letter was of “intelligence grade”, information contained in the letter cannot be included in any reports produced by the PAC.

However, he neglected to mention that Bank Negara specifically provided that the PAC can be allowed to use the information contained in its letter for PAC’s publications on the condition that “approval from the foreign regulatory authorities be obtained via Bank Negara in advance”. (Sekiranya PAC bercadang untuk menggunakan maklumat di dalam dokumen awam, kebenaran dari negara-negara terlibat melalui Bank perlu dipohon terlebih dahulu.)

What’s more, the letter would provide the necessary leads for the PAC to investigate further into the multi-billion dollar embezzlement which took place. For example, the PAC would then have the strong basis to summon Jho Low to testify to the Committee.

In addition, Datuk Hasan Arifin did not respond to the question as to why he refused to share the “intelligence grade” letter to the PAC members?  He claimed that the letter was addressed to him confidentially, but the contents of the Bank Negara letter repeatedly made reference to the information which was “provided to the PAC”. (pendedahan maklumat pendaftaran GSL adalah terhad kepada PAC…)

Therefore Datuk Hasan Arifin’s media response yesterday did not absolve him from his role in covering up the 1MDB scandal.  Instead it only confirmed that he is either a complete illiterate who could not read and understand basic Bahasa Malaysia, or more likely, he is abusing his position as the PAC Chairman to obstruct the investigations into the single largest financial scandal in the history of the country.

As such, Datuk Hasan Arifin’s response reinforced our calls for him to resign as the PAC Chairman because Malaysians can no longer trust him to carry out his role honestly, professionally and with integrity.

The top most question now which he must answer is, why is he going all out to hide Jho Low’s connections to Good Star and 1MDB, even at the cost of making him look like a complete idiot?  Is it because Jho Low will be the key to unlock the mystery of how billions of ringgit might have found its way to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and his family’s personal wealth?

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The "cari makan" chairman of PAC must resign for lying to the committee, suppressing evidence and obstructing investigations into 1MDB!

The Public Accounts Committee members were baffled as to why Datuk Hasan Arifin had unilaterally deleted sentences from the finalised PAC Report on 1MDB which quoted Bank Negara who disclosed that the “ultimate beneficiary of Good Star Limited is an individual not related to Petrosaudi International Limited”.

We were further stumped by Datuk Hasan Arifin’s failure to disclose to PAC members another letter from Bank Negara dated 6 April 2016, a day before the final PAC report was tabled in Parliament. When we discovered the existence of the letter via a ministerial reply in Parliament on 17 May 2016, we had confronted the PAC Chairman at our meeting the very next day.

All PAC opposition members were left speechless when Datuk Hasan refused to share the contents of the Bank Negara letter with us. We could not understand Datuk Hasan’s claims of confidentiality when PAC members were even authorised to review the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB which was classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).  What could possibly be more confidential than OSA documents?

Datuk Hasan’s highly suspicious behaviour led us to believe that the Bank Negara letter responding to queries from the PAC must have contained some damning information on 1MDB. I had speculated two days ago that Bank Negara must have outed Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low as the sole beneficiary of Good Star Limited and demanded that the PAC Chairman confirm or deny my allegation.

Datuk Hasan Arifin refused to respond to the press despite repeated queries.

Malaysians are ashamed because we have to depend on the foreign media, The Wall Street Journal in this case, to expose the truth contained in the said letter.  The letter dated 6 April 2016 from Bank Negara to the PAC clearly stated that Good Star Limited is “beneficially owned by Low Taek Jho” and that there was never any change of ownership in the company.

This crucial piece of information opens up a whole Pandora’s Box and confirmed what critics like The Sarawak Report, The Edge publications and opposition Members of Parliament have accused 1MDB all along, that out of the US$1.83 billion investment 1MDB carried out with Petrosaudi International Limited, at least US$1.03 billion have been directly misappropriated to Good Star Limited, owned by Jho Low.

This incontrovertible evidence tears to shreds the pretense by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and 1MDB’s top officials that Good Star Limited belongs to the Petrosaudi group, a claim which was not backed by any legally-admissible documentary evidence.

This vital evidence, if taken into consideration by the Auditor-General and the PAC, would have made the already damning PAC report even more devastating. Fraud, while previously suspected, would have been confirmed.

In fact, had Datuk Hasan Arifin shared the Bank Negara letter with the PAC members, a whole new front of investigations would have been opened, including summoning Jho Low to testify before the PAC. Instead, he lied to the PAC members claiming that the Bank Negara letter was intended for his eyes only. This was despite the letter clearly making reference to the information being provided to the PAC for deliberations.

Hence it cannot be clearer that Datuk Hasan Arifin has been nominated by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional to hamper and cover up the investigations into 1MDB.  The PAC Chairman has denigrated his parliamentary position to become a tool to help the crooks who stole billions of dollars of Malaysian tax-payers’ money.

He has lied to and acted against the decisions of the PAC. He has suppressed crucial evidence to cover up shenanigans multi-billion ringgit fraud by the powers that be. He obstructed the parliamentary investigation into the single largest scandal in the history of Malaysia.

Datuk Hasan Arifin’s position as the PAC Chairman is no longer tenable because Malaysians can no longer trust him to carry out his role honestly, professionally and with integrity.  We now call upon Datuk Hasan Arifin to resign as the Chairman of the PAC because he has brought disrepute to the committee and disgraced the Parliament.

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1MDB Interim Report Will Silence Dato' Husni Hanadzlah's Lies

Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah blatantly lied that the preliminary report by the Auditor-General “has found no evidence of wrong doing” against 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)

As a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), we have been asked by the Auditor-General (AG) to embargo the findings and information provided in the Interim Report on 1MDB. The members of PAC hence refrained from making comments to respect the wishes of the AG while awaiting the completion of the full report.

However, I read with complete shock that the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah issued a statement yesterday that “the Auditor-General investigating 1MDB’s activities has found no evidence of wrong doing”.

Why did the Minister have the special privilege of publicly commenting and concluding on the Interim Report when the PAC members were told to keep our mouths shut?

What is worse however, is the fact that the Minister blatantly lied about the findings in the Auditor-General’s Report. While I will continue to refrain from referring to the specifics of the Interim Report, any normal person reading the report will be stunned by the sheer number and scale of infractions and transgressions committed by 1MDB and its officers cited in the report.

Hence it boggles the mind as to why Dato’ Seri Husni Hanadzlah saw it fit as to make the unilateral announcement that the AG “found no evidence of wrong doing” to create the false impression that 1MDB has been cleared of all its alleged shenanigans.

The Second Finance Minister even took the trouble to point out that the “transfer of USD700 million to certain individual does not arise”. However, we don’t know if Dato’ Seri Husni was referring Dato’ Seri Najib Razak or Low Taek Jow as he who must not be named.

Regardless of who the Minister was referring to, the AG never cleared the “transfer of USD700 million” in the Interim Report. On the contrary, the USD700 million transaction raises many questions which the National Audit Department said it needed to investigate further before making its final conclusions.

Therefore, while the Minister had hoped that “all the baseless allegations will be put to rest”, the reverse holds greater truth. I have been very encouraged by the efforts which were made by the National Audit Department to discover the truth, despite the lack of cooperation given by 1MDB.

If the Minister still believes he is right and justified, I would echo the call made by the DAP Parliamentary Leader, Lim Kit Siang, for the Interim Report to be made public for all to judge.

At the end of the day, after reading the Interim Report, I am now convinced that all the lies, denials, mismanagement and misappropriations by 1MDB and all who are involved in the decision-making process will be duly proven and exposed.

Tony Pua

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Who to Trust: The Home Minister or the IGP?

Why are there conflicting status reports on the investigation of 1Malaysia Development Bhd by the Home Minister and the Inspector-General of Police?

I had asked the Home Minister, Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi for my parliamentary question on the 10 June 2015 to state

"…kedudukan siasatan pihak Polis ke atas penyelewengan dalam urusniaga 1MDB yang telah menyebabkan kerugian berbilion-bilion ringgit."

"Adakah Low Taek Jho telah disoalsiasat sebab dokumen-dokumen yang terbongkar menunjukkan bahawa wang 1MDB telah disalurkan ke dalam akaun beliau?"

The Home Minister completely avoided responding to whether Low Taek Jho has been investigated. However, he surprised everyone by claiming that the Police have completed their probe into debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and is now waiting for further instructions from Attorney-General (A-G).

In referring to a police report lodged by former Batu Kawan Umno division vice-chairman Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, Zahid said the case was classified under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust by public servant or agent.

"The investigative papers have been referred to the A-G on March 9 this year for further action," he said.

Firstly, I’m disappointed that there was no reference made to the police report which I had made personally on the 4 March 2015 against the various parties relating to 1MDB, including Low Taek Jho.

However, I’m even more surprised that the investigation over 1MDB has been completed and submitted to the attorney general more than 3 months ago on 9 March.

This is because on 9 March itself, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had confirmed that police are investigating the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), with a new task force formed to probe the strategic investment company. He said the task force set up several days ago by the Attorney General (A-G), which included the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the A-G Chambers and the police.

"We are part of the task force set up by the A-G. We are investigating those reports lodged," he said on that day.

Since then Bernama reported on 22 March 2015 that the IGP reiterated, “as the police have received information and reports on the case, the special squad [to investigate 1MDB] felt that we should undertake an investigation without having to wait for the report of the National Audit Department.”

Even as late as a week ago on 4 June 2015, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) was still pleading for time and patience from the Malaysian public for the investigations to be completed.

"I don't want to speak on behalf of the task force. I am not their spokesperson but I just want to confirm that the investigation is being carried out. So I don't want to give out any details of the investigation. This is because if I divulge details of the investigation, it will disrupt the task force's probe," he said

In fact, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar even alluded to the fact that none of the key protaganists like Low Taek Jho or the top management of the 1MDB scandal have been called for questioning when he asserted, “…in commercial cases such as this, we do not arrest first and then investigate. We have to investigate it first and then only make the arrest if needed”.

However, if the Home Minister is telling the truth, then we have to ask what is the A-G doing sitting on the investigation papers for the past 3 months?

The glaring question therefore is, how is it that Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi could inform the Parliament that the Police have completed their probe into 1MDB and the investigation papers have been sent to the A-G on March 9 this year when everything the IGP has publicly announced points to the complete? Or is this another example of the Home Ministry’s left hand being totally clueless about what the right hand is doing, a state of affair which is becoming the norm rather than the exception in the Najib administration?

Tony Pua

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Nothing to Hide? Don't Be Fooled.

As the Prime Minister chickened out of his own 1MDB “Nothing to Hide” forum, the Minister of Finance II Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told tall tales on live television.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must be panicking and scampering around like Chicken Little who believed that “the sky is falling” on him. Not only did he have to make flimsy excuses to justify weaselling out of a “Nothing to Hide” Forum choreograph to make him look good, his Second Finance Minister was caught red-handed telling tall tales about 1MDB on live television.

In fact, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told at least 3 mighty tall tales on the RTM1 Dialogue “1MDB: Where Did the Money Go?” in a vain attempt to convince the audience that all is well at the wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance.

Firstly, when the host raised the question I tweeted, with regards to the US$1.2 billion paid by 1MDB to Good Star Limited using the pretext of a loan to Petrosaudi International Limited, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni deflected it by claiming that the media only claimed US$700 million and the opposition is always lying.

He then tried to cover up even the US$700 million siphoned to Jho Low’s company, by claiming that 1MDB has gotten back all the money from Petrosaudi International and even made a tidy profit of US$488 million. Hence the issue of money being siphoned, and Jho Low’s involvement is immaterial or does not arise.

Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni was obviously attempting to make light of a very grave matter. Otherwise, how could a Finance Minister not know that the allegations that Jho Low’s company siphoned US$1.2 billion has been published not only in blogs and major news portals, but also the leading financial papers like The Edge . While US$700 million was transferred to Good Star directly in 2009, another US$160 million and US$330 million was transferred in the 2010 and 2011 financial years respectively, totally US$1.2 billion.

What’s more, the so-called “profit” is a lie because the alleged US$1.1 billion (which includes the US$488 million profit) sitting in BSI Bank Singapore isn’t cash but in units of assets of indeterminate value.

Secondly, the Second Finance Minister made a complete fool of himself by claiming that it is a normal practice for Auditors to be changed or “rotated” every 3 years. While that might possibly explain why KPMG was replaced with Deloitte in 2013, it didn’t at all explain why Ernst & Young quit even before it signed its first accounts in 2010!

However more pertinently, the above argument by Dato’ Seri Husni is a complete piece of fiction because there is no such principle for auditor rotation every 3 years. No other Ministry of Finance owned or Government-linked companies ever rotated their Auditors with any regularity.

While the makcik and pakciks watching the live screening at home may be swayed by his bullshit, the Minister has single-handedly destroyed the credibility of his office in the local and international financial community. Bankers and investors alike must think that Malaysia has an idiot as a Finance Minister.

However, the tallest of the tall tales told by Dato’ Seri Husni must be when he claimed that Syarikat Prasarana Bhd, a completely unrelated Finance Ministry subsidiary, won a RM215 million bid to operate and maintain a Metro line in Saudi Arabia in May 2015 through the efforts of 1MDB. This was allegedly a result of 1MDB’s joint venture with Petrosaudi International in 2009. What the Minister didn’t say was that the joint venture was already disbanded in March 2010, long before Prasarana’s bid into secure the project.

The Second Finance Minister was caught with his pants down when The Sun Daily reported that Dato’ Shahril Mokhtar tweeted “As a former CEO of Prasarana I started d venture into Saudi Arabia and it has got nothing to do w Petro Saudi.” The tweet has since been deleted but the damage is already done – Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni’s erstwhile relatively trustworthy reputation has been blown to smithereens.

The failure of the Second Finance Minister to explain truthfully to the Malaysian public, coupled with the Prime Minister’s disgraceful no show at the “Nothing To Hide” forum staged just for him, have proven that it is impossible to cover up the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal. Both Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah have now got no other choice but to resign disgracefully from the Cabinet.

Tony Pua

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900% - TRX, Bandar Malaysia Revaluation Nothing Short of Daylight Robbery

Second Finance Minister Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah let slip another bombshell during his RTM1 live interview on the valuation of 1MDB’s Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia.

I had eagerly followed Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah’s live television interview with RTM1 to hear the Second Finance Minister’s explanation on where did 1MDB’s money went.

While there were many other oft-repeated excuses to explain the “missing funds” and his refusal to entertain questions with regards to the enigmatic Jho Low were widely publicised in news reports, what stunned me was Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni’s revised valuation of 1MDB’s real estate properties.

As he rattled off the list of highly valued assets in 1MDB’s possession, he explained that the 70-acre Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and 495-acre Bandar Malaysia are now worth RM7 billion and RM11 billion respectively. He argued that their combined value of RM18 billion will go a long way to proving that 1MDB will comfortably pay off its monster debts over the longer term.

These revised valuations are shockers because even the previously revised valuations presented in the 31 March 2014 financial statements are only worth a fraction of the newly disclosed figures. The Tun Razak Exchange land belonging to KLIFD Sdn Bhd was already then revalued to RM2.7 billion. Similarly, the Sg Besi military airbase land sold to Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd was then revalued to RM4.29 billion. These numbers add up to barely RM7 billion.

The question hence is how did the valuations of these pieces of properties leap by 157% in just one year?

Worse, these properties were purchased from the Malaysian Government at only RM194 million and RM1.69 billion back in 2011 and 2012 respectively. In less than 5 years, 1MDB gets to “profit” nearly 900% despite having done almost nothing on these pieces of prime land over the last few years.

We want to know if the 2nd Minister of Finance was spewing gibberish and just plucked these new outlandish valuations out of thin air to present an optimistic picture of 1MDB. How were these new valuations arrived at? Or are there more sinister reasons why the values have been massively inflated?

I had written earlier on 31 May 2015, in response to Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni’s earlier statement that the TRX and Bandar Malaysia will be made separate “independent” entities owned by the Ministry of Finance. I had expressed my concern that the Minister’s statement meant that the Federal Government will essentially acquire KLIFD and Bandar Malaysia from 1MDB at very high prices.

Based on March 2014 accounts, I had already warned that if the Government pays asset prices of RM7 billion and still relieve 1MDB of their associated loans of RM3.2 billion, then Malaysians will be forking out a total of RM10.2 billion just for these transactions alone.

However, based on the latest bombshell from the Second Finance Minister, the Government would now have to fork out a whopping RM18 billion, or as much as RM21.2 billion if KLIFD and Bandar Malaysia’s associated loans are taken into consideration.

Is this the real, devious and deceptive scheme the Ministry of Finance is planning to cover up the massive multi-billion ringgit losses and missing money in 1MDB while keeping the pretence that everything is above board? If so, it is certainly nothing short of daylight robbery of the tax-payers’ monies.

Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni must provide a detailed explanation on the above and not evade it like he did the Jho Low poser. This isn’t some alleged tabloid speculation. These bits of information came from the Minister himself and it would be the ultimate act of irresponsibility for him to refuse response to the above questions.

Tony Pua

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Mr Jho Low - "Are You Telling Me the PM Doesn't Make His Own Decisions?"

Unfortunately Jho Low told the truth that the Prime Minister is responsible for the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and hence Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must immediately recuse himself from any further involvement with the 1MDB investigations and decision-making in the Company

The discovery of the Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) of 1Malaysia Development Bhd dated 2 September 2009, exposed the Clause 117 which placed absolute powers over the company’s decisions at the hands of the Prime Minister.

Clause 117 dictates that the Prime Minister must give his “written approval” for any of 1MDB’s deals, including the firm’s investments or any bid for restructuring.

This includes “any financial commitment (including investment), restructuring or any other matter which is likely to affect the guarantee given by the Federal Government of Malaysia for the benefit of the company, national interest, national security or any policy of the Federal Government of Malaysia”.

Other matters which need the Prime Minister’s written approval are amendments to the company’s M&A as well as all appointments and removal of directors and senior management team of 1MDB.

Therefore Jho Low was absolutely right and was telling only the truth when he blurted to Euromoney in March asking, “Guys, it's very simple, there's a board, who's the shareholder?”

“Are you telling me the prime minister doesn't make his own decisions? That the ministry, the finance minister, who is the prime minister – and there are only two to three people in the finance ministry that sign off on shareholder resolutions under law – that none of them... that they just signed without evaluating it?” he added.

With this confirmation of 1MDB’s M&A, all the responsibility over the colosal RM42 billion of debt and billions of ringgit of losses and missing cash falls directly and entirely on the shoulders of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak. He not only signed off all decisions, he was involved every step of the way.

As a result, we demand that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak recuse himself from any further involvement in all decisions over the investigations of the monster 1MDB scandal. Firstly, he must stop taking charge over the direction and manner the investigations are carried out. Secondly, the Auditor-General’s office, which is a department under the Ministry of Finance, must also stop reporting to the Prime Minister, who is also the Finance Minister, on its findings and investigations.

In addition, as Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is directly implicated in the transactions which took place in 1MDB, he must stop immediate participation in all on-going and future investment, restructuring and business decisions of the company until all investigations are completed. This is to prevent any attempt by the Prime Minister to effect any transactions to cover up any incriminating misdeeds which took place in the past.

If the Prime Minister were to continue his involvement in the investigations as well as 1MDB’s business decisions, the integrity and trustworthiness of any reports produced will be questioned and the public interest in the matter will be severely jeopardized.

Instead, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should be given immediate full authority over the direction of investigation of 1MDB. In addition, the Auditor-General must be directed to reported directly to the Public Accounts Committee over its findings, entirely bypassing Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

Finally, all major investments, restructuring and business decisions of 1MDB henceforth, must be approved directly by the Cabinet, and not be the Prime Minister alone, as dictated in the Company’s M&A. Where necessary, the M&A must be immediately amended to ensure that a proper set of corporate governance with the necessary check and balance is adopted by 1MDB.

Tony Pua

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