Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan continued his tirade against the US DOJ again yesterday, accusing the DOJ of publishing a “half-cooked report”.
He even insinuated that the United States of attempting to influence the results of the impending Malaysian election. "Is it because the election is around the corner and some desperate quarters need a leg-up?" he tweeted.
This is on top of the Minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit berating the US DOJ the previous day, “you (DOJ) mock, you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong. But in the document you submitted, you didn't include the diamond as one of the items that you want to seize. It was unnecessary to put the name there.”
The Minister is saying that since elections is around the corner, the US DOJ should not have filed the updated suit last week as it might influence the results of the election, since it implicates both the Prime Minister and his wife of misappropriating state funds for their own personal benefit?
Is the Minister trying to tell the US that they should have waited until the election is over and the Najib administration has won a new mandate, before publishing such scandalous allegations against those who have misappropriated more than US$5.6 billion of funds from 1MDB?
Does the Minister realise how ridiculous he sounds? Is he really that half-witted, or is he only pretending to be so?
In responding to Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s criticism, the US DOJ said that they “have to allege enough facts to show a reasonable belief that United States money laundering and other criminal laws were violated and that the subject assets were involved in or traceable to these illegal transactions.”
Surely Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan would know that the way to fight a factual allegation is to provide factual evidence which destroys the allegations. The daily repetitive attempts by the Minister and his colleagues to taint the US investigations with insinuations of political and other motives not only does not help the cause of the Prime Minister and his wife, they actually worsen the negative perception because the alleged facts have not been challenged.
Malaysians are asking, if the US DOJ is indeed concocting malicious allegations against the Prime Minsiter and his wife as the Cabinet Ministers continue to insist, why haven’t the allegations been denied?
In fact, why hasn't Dato’ Seri Najib Razak produced proof that this bank account(s) never received the purported US$732 million which had originated from 1MDB? Why hasn't Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor come out to publicly deny that she had indeed acquired, or received as a gift, the alleged US$27.3 million pink diamond pendant?
Their silence speaks a thousand words, while the aimless barking by the Prime Minister’s lieutanants only served to confirm without a doubt in the minds of the people, the truth of the US DOJ scandalous allegations.
Perhaps in his eagerness to castigate the US DOJ, Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan has merely forgotten to establish the facts.
Let me challenge Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan once again, did or did not the Prime Minister, referred to as MO1 in the US DOJ suit, receive more than US$732 million in his personal bank account in Malaysia while his wife, Mrs MO1 acquired a US$27.3 million diamond pendant after trips to Monaco and New York in 2013?
If the EPU Minister can’t answer the above questions, then he should stop making a complete fool of himself and further destroy whatever is left of the good name of Malaysia to a watching international audience.
Showing posts with label Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. Show all posts
Friday, June 23, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Why is Rahman Dahlan not outraged by the allegation that US$27.3 mil. of 1MDB funds helped buy a 22-carat pink diamond pendant necklace for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor?
Malaysians are amused by the sardonic entertainment the Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers are putting up for us on a daily basis in response to the recently updated US DOJ suit to seize an additional US$540 million worth of assets laundered with funds from 1MDB. This sum is on to of nearly US$1.2 billion in the suits filed since July last year.
At the heart of the scandal is the involvement of a “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1) who received more than US$732 million of the laundered funds in his personal bank account in Malaysia. What further stunned the nation was when “MO1’s wife” was mentioned in the updated kleptocracy suit, when DOJ alleged that she spent US$27.3 million on a 22-carat pink diamond pendant necklace with that money.
Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein would put up a blank face feigning ignorance and asked “for all we know it could be anyone. ‘MO1’ could be (Second Finance Minister) Johari (Abdul) Ghani.”
This of course runs contrary to Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Minister, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s public admission on BBC in September 2016 that “obviously, if you read the documents, it is the prime minister…”
This confirmation is on top of the Minister’s earlier contemptuous remark made in August 2016 that “only an idiot doesn’t know who MO1 is”.
The question as to whether Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan would tell Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein that the latter is “an idiot” is perhaps best left for the former to answer. What is perhaps comically incongruent is how two senior Ministers in the Prime Minister’s office held 2 contradictory positions over the simple poser.
They were both however consistent in ignoring the elephant(s) in the room pointed out by the DOJ – that MO1 received more than US$732 million in his personal bank account while Mrs MO1 got her US$27.3 million necklace with money borrowed by the Government’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
Yesterday again, the EPU Minister, who is also BN Strategic Communications Director, confirmed that MO1 is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, and MO1’s wife would be Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
However, Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan took pains to lament that “you (DOJ) mock, you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong. But in the document you submitted, you didn't include the diamond as one of the items that you want to seize. It was unnecessary to put the name there."
The Minister clearly and intentionally missed the woods for the trees. Instead of asking why “implicate” Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, should the Minister, whose primary responsibility is not to protect the Prime Minister’s wife but the interest of the Rakyat, confirm if the US$27.3 million diamond necklace was indeed purchased with money laundered from 1MDB?
It is worth noting that the EPU Minister did not deny these facts. He is merely making a hue and cry of the exposure of these “facts”.
Before Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan decides to speak to the press again regarding this issue, let me challenge him to confirm these simple facts exposed by the DOJ with Mrs MO1:
1. On or about July 5, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor met New York jeweller, Lorraine Schwartz together with Low Taek Jho and others aboard the 147 meter Topaz, one of the largest private yachts in the world in Monaco. There group discussed the design of the necklace to hold the 22-carat pink diamond, which itself would be made of smaller diamonds.
2. On or about September 28, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor again met Schwartz with Low in a hotel suite in the Mandarin Time Warner in New York in order to show them the layout of the necklace that Schwartz had designed.
3. The finished 22-carat pink diamond necklace, which included the 22-carat pink diamond as a pendant, was delivered to a friend of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in Hong Kong on or about March 7, 2014, for delivery to the wife of the Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur.
If Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan can provide evidence, on behalf of Mrs MO1 that the above allegations are brazenly untrue, then let me assure the Minister and everyone else in the Cabinet that I will be the first from the opposition bench to sit with him in a press conference to publicly denounce the DOJ allegations.
If not, then let me remind Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan, that as a responsible Minister and citizen, he must report the above transgression to both the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for their respective investigations.
At the heart of the scandal is the involvement of a “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1) who received more than US$732 million of the laundered funds in his personal bank account in Malaysia. What further stunned the nation was when “MO1’s wife” was mentioned in the updated kleptocracy suit, when DOJ alleged that she spent US$27.3 million on a 22-carat pink diamond pendant necklace with that money.
Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein would put up a blank face feigning ignorance and asked “for all we know it could be anyone. ‘MO1’ could be (Second Finance Minister) Johari (Abdul) Ghani.”
This of course runs contrary to Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Minister, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s public admission on BBC in September 2016 that “obviously, if you read the documents, it is the prime minister…”
This confirmation is on top of the Minister’s earlier contemptuous remark made in August 2016 that “only an idiot doesn’t know who MO1 is”.
The question as to whether Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan would tell Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein that the latter is “an idiot” is perhaps best left for the former to answer. What is perhaps comically incongruent is how two senior Ministers in the Prime Minister’s office held 2 contradictory positions over the simple poser.
They were both however consistent in ignoring the elephant(s) in the room pointed out by the DOJ – that MO1 received more than US$732 million in his personal bank account while Mrs MO1 got her US$27.3 million necklace with money borrowed by the Government’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
Yesterday again, the EPU Minister, who is also BN Strategic Communications Director, confirmed that MO1 is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, and MO1’s wife would be Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
However, Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan took pains to lament that “you (DOJ) mock, you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong. But in the document you submitted, you didn't include the diamond as one of the items that you want to seize. It was unnecessary to put the name there."
The Minister clearly and intentionally missed the woods for the trees. Instead of asking why “implicate” Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, should the Minister, whose primary responsibility is not to protect the Prime Minister’s wife but the interest of the Rakyat, confirm if the US$27.3 million diamond necklace was indeed purchased with money laundered from 1MDB?
It is worth noting that the EPU Minister did not deny these facts. He is merely making a hue and cry of the exposure of these “facts”.
Before Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan decides to speak to the press again regarding this issue, let me challenge him to confirm these simple facts exposed by the DOJ with Mrs MO1:
1. On or about July 5, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor met New York jeweller, Lorraine Schwartz together with Low Taek Jho and others aboard the 147 meter Topaz, one of the largest private yachts in the world in Monaco. There group discussed the design of the necklace to hold the 22-carat pink diamond, which itself would be made of smaller diamonds.
2. On or about September 28, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor again met Schwartz with Low in a hotel suite in the Mandarin Time Warner in New York in order to show them the layout of the necklace that Schwartz had designed.
3. The finished 22-carat pink diamond necklace, which included the 22-carat pink diamond as a pendant, was delivered to a friend of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in Hong Kong on or about March 7, 2014, for delivery to the wife of the Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur.
If Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan can provide evidence, on behalf of Mrs MO1 that the above allegations are brazenly untrue, then let me assure the Minister and everyone else in the Cabinet that I will be the first from the opposition bench to sit with him in a press conference to publicly denounce the DOJ allegations.
If not, then let me remind Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan, that as a responsible Minister and citizen, he must report the above transgression to both the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for their respective investigations.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
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:
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?
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?
Saturday, June 17, 2017
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.
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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