The MACC will never shake its politically tainted image unless it starts taking action against power abuse and corruption in relation to 1MDB and SRC International

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been putting up a brave front in making dozens of arrests of corrupt government officials from state utilities and zakat officials to senior police officers around the country.

While none of the key arrests to date have resulted in convictions in the court of law, the relatively aggressive effort in fighting corruption is to be applauded.

However, all its efforts have failed to redeem the commission’s tarnished and tainted image of being a political tool of the Najib administration, and for its failure in touching anything remotely connected to the two largest scandals afflicting Malaysia today – 1MDB and SRC International.

In comparison, over the period of a year, the Singapore authorities have prosecuted and secured guilty verdicts against various parties involved in facilitating the laundering of illegally sourced funds passing through the Singapore banking system.

The most recent conviction was against a remisier who provided a S$3,000 inducement to a financial analyst to produce a favourable valuation report for a then proposed US$2.4 billion acquisition of Petrosaudi Oil Services Limited (PSOSL) by 1MDB.

In Malaysia, the Auditor-General and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have already flagged the transaction as highly irregular and failed all tests of corporate goverance and due diligence – with the management both misleading the 1MDB Board of Directors, as well as ignoring the instructions of the latter.

Why is it that while the Singapore authorities have not only completed the prosecution and conviction of those found guilty of being involved in the above fraudulent transaction, but in Malaysia, the MACC isn’t even remotely close to completing its investigations.  In fact, the MACC Chief Commissioner has consistently refused to confirm if there are any investigations on the parties involved in the 1MDB scandal which have burdened the Malaysian tax-payers with RM42 billion of financial liabilities.

As a result, regardless of how many other arrests the MACC made against police officers and other agencies, the rakyat will forever view MACC as a biased agency which will only take action against the fish fries and not the monster sharks.  This is especially since it is now public knowledge, undenied by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself, that at least US$731 million originating from 1MDB and RM69 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd found its way to his personal bank account with Ambank Bhd.

The Chief Commissioner, Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad had tried to brush off criticisms of MACC’s tardiness by claiming that actions against politicians are delayed because they didn’t want the issue to be made used of by politicians for the purposes of campaigning.

"There is no issue of 'pilih kasih' (favouritism), it's about timing. If we take action straightaway, then that's favouritism," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Datuk Dzulkifli could not be more misguided in his rational for not completing its investigations on 1MDB and SRC International, or prosecuting the politicians involved.  In fact, his failure to take action against corrupt politicians on a timely basis is itself an act of ‘favouritism’.

It is not the business of MACC to interfere with politics or political campaigning. The business of MACC is to prosecute the corrupt, regardless of whether the person is the Prime Minister or a lowly civil servant.  The constitution provides for the fact that all Malaysians are equal under the eyes of the law.

Secondly, Datuk Dzulkifli appears to insinuate that political campaigning against corrupt officials is a despicable and dishonourable activity.  The MACC Chief could not be more wrong. Campaigning against the politically corrupt officials is central and integral to the concept of electoral democracy.

The rakyat must have the opportunity to hear and understand all the relevant facts, so that they are able to make informed choices during the General Election.

So, Datuk Dzulkifli, we call upon you to use the powers vested upon MACC to take immediate and uncompromised actions against political figures who are involved in abuse of power, the misappropriation of state funds as well as corruption.  It will go a long way towards redeeming the severely damaged image of MACC and demonstrating that you really act without fear or favour.

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Did the Second Finance Minister even bother asking the Finance Minister if the latter took money, directly or indirectly from 1MDB and SRC International?

I am disappointed, although not surprised by Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani’s immediate decline of my invite to speak at my fund-raising dinner.  It would have been perfect opportunity for the Second Finance Minister to convince and implore the voters of Petaling Jaya Utara to not only give 1MDB “a rest”, but even give me “a rest”.

After all, he could have demonstrated his conviction that “the folks of Petaling Jaya Utara elected you as their MP to do better things than just being obsessed with 1MDB”.

He justified his decision to turn down the invite by claiming that "I have to do my job as a minister and I would do the best for the country".

"Even if I had lunch or dinner (with Pua), it would not solve the problem the way he wants, because I am not the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), police and investigation agencies. So, let these agencies do their work.  Nowhere in my letter did I mention I want these agencies to stop their investigation," he told Malaysiakini.

Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani cannot have his cake and eat it too.

He wants to escape the challenge by taking the moral high ground.  He says he wants “to do his job as a minister” and he “would do the best for the country”.

If that is so, now that he is the Second Finance Minister, with all the necessary access to all the documents and transactions within the Finance Ministry subsidiaries – has he figured out why and how 1MDB and its sister company, SRC International lost tens of billions of ringgit?

Has Dato’ Seri Johari even bothered asking the Finance Minister, who also happens to be the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, whether he did indeed receive US$731 million in his personal bank account which originated from 1MDB?

Or did Dato’ Seri Johari question Dato’ Seri Najib if he received the RM69 million in his personal bank account which originated from SRC Interntional, as inadvertently exposed by none other than the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Apandi Ali himself?  At the very least, did the Second Finance Minister, in dutifully carrying out his responsibility ask if Dato’ Seri Najib intends to return the RM69 million back to SRC International?

Why should a Second Finance Minister trying to shift his responsibility to “Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), police and investigation agencies”, when it is also his sworn duty to administer his own Ministry’s subsidiaries?

Isn’t uncovering multi-billion ringgit hanky-panky within his Ministry part of his Minister’s scope of work? Is it because Dato’ Seri Johari not dare to ask because he already knows the answer, but don’t want to rock the boat?

Or is Dato’ Seri Johari taking the position that what has happened in the past, even if it involved billions of ringgit of stolen funds, should be left alone, and his blinkered role is just focus on how to cover up the massive hole which has been created?

Whether the Minister attends my dinner to espouse his position is immaterial.  However, Dato’ Seri Johari’s deeds and actions only goes to show the hypocrisy of his moral high ground and his claims of “doing the best for this country”.  In fact, in his attempt to cover up the stolen funds and keeping the kleptocrats in power without answering for their crimes, he is betraying the country and sacrificing the interest of our future generations.

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New exposés during Singapore trial revealed how SRC International had similarly misappropriated funds using the same dubious investment funds as 1MDB

Malaysians are now thoroughly familiar with how 1MDB has misappropriated some US$7 billion of investment funds, of which approximately US$731 million has ended up in the Prime Minister’s personal bank account at Ambank, as exposed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

One of the key modus operandi which was used by 1MDB to launder the funds was to first move the money into seemingly legitimate investment funds. Subsequently, these funds will then pass through the money to special purpose vehicles created by Jho Low and his associates to be utilised or further disbursed to third parties.

For example, the 2013 and 2014 financial statements of 1MDB which were previously audited by Deloitte Malaysia, showed that nearly US$1.6 billion were invested in overseas funds without the provision of any details.

From the US DOJ filings, we now know that 1MDB, via its subsidiary, 1MDB Global Investment Limited, had in 2013 invested the funds with Devonshire Growth Fund (US$646 mil), Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund (US$415 mil) and Cistenique Investment Fund (US$531 mil).  From these funds, a total of US$1.265 mil was transferred to two British Virgin Islands incorporated companies, Tanore Finance Corporation and Granton Property Holdings, owned by Eric Tan Kim Loong, an associate of Jho Low.  From Tanore, US$681 million was transferred to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

For SRC International which was funded with RM4 billion from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Persaraan (KWAP), the March 2014 financial statements audited by Deloitte Malaysia had disclosed a whopping sum of RM3.81 billion categorised as “investment portfolio outside Malaysia”.

Other than a US$60 million failed investment in Mongolia’s Gobi Coal and Energy Ltd which we have discovered via past parliamentary replies, Malaysians have been left in the dark as to where and what exactly these funds have been invested in.

Malaysians’ worst fears were realised when the Switzerland Attorney-General issued a public statement on 5 October 2016 that “the sum of US$800 million appears to have been misappropriated from investments in natural resources made by the SRC sovereign fund.”

“Secondly, it is suspected that a ‘Ponzi’ scheme fraud (i.e. paying the returns on initial investments from funds obtained from subsequent investors rather than from legitimate revenue from the investments) was committed to conceal the misappropriations from both the SRC fund and from 1MDB,” he further disclosed.

Last week, we have received confirmation from the Singapore courts where the trial of former BSI banker, Yeo Jiawei was being held, the money from SRC International have been launder throught the same vehicles used to mask the transfer of the 1MDB investment funds above.

Testifying at his own trial, Yeo said the scheme devised was for SRC International, to invest in a fiduciary fund called Enterprise Emerging Market Fund (EEMF) in 2011.  This is the same exact fund which was used by 1MDB to misappropriate US$415 million as mentioned above.

He explained that a fiduciary fund was one where the client, in this case SRC, will direct the manager of the fund on what to do with the money invested.

He also informed the court that SRC asked that EEMF extend a loan of US$100 million to a company called Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners whose beneficiary owner is Eric Tan Kim Loong, like Tanore and Granton.  He further disclosed SRC then gave an indemnity that shielded BSI from responsibility should all the money be lost.

The revelations at the Singapore courts are explosive.  They not only lend credence to the suspicions and allegations that the RM3.81 billion “investments in overseas portfolios” in SRC International have effectively all been siphoned away, just like what has happened in 1MDB; they exposed the fact that these “investment funds” like EEMF received direct instructions from SRC as to how the funds are used and provided an indemnity to the relevant parties.

It above has proven firstly that EEMF, Devonshire and Cistenique investment funds are sham investments which 1MDB and SRC has participated in, secondly and more damagingly, that SRC directly given instructions for the funds to be siphoned to vehicles such as Blackstone.

We call on the Minister of Finance to come clean with the transactions which have taken place in SRC International.  We also call upon the authorities – the Police, the MACC and Bank Negara Malaysia to carry out full investigations, particularly on the Directors an Management of the company for the crimes of theft, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering.

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Is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s strategy to deal with Malaysia’s entrenching reputation as a global kleptocracy to remain silent like a mouse?

Malaysians have been demanding answers from Dato' Seri Najib Razak on the 1MDB-related scandal, that is the RM4 billion SRC International, which is the former subsidiary of 1MDB.  Similar to 1MDB, the money which was borrowed from KWAP has been invested in mysterious and unknown funds overseas.  No one, including anyone from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) knows where the money has disappeared to.

The Prime Minister and the Attorney-General have also stubbornly refused to respond to the clear-cut evidence which have shown that SRC International has transferred, via intermediaries, at least RM67 million into the personal bank account of Dato' Seri Najib Razak.

However, it appears that Dato' Seri Najib cannot remain silent forever as, like 1MDB, the international authorities are catching up to the SRC International laundering scams.

The Swiss Attorney-General Office (OAG) has publicly stated that investigations revealed that substantial amounts of money were allegedly misappropriated from former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International and that fraud was committed based on a form of “Ponzi” scheme to cover it up.

Dato' Seri Najib Razak can no longer choose to remain silent in the face of another international investigation over funds which he controls.  He must come forward and disclose if the allegations made by the Swiss authorities are frivolous or are they substantive, which will require an open and thorough investigation in Malaysia.

In addition, Dato' Seri Najib Razak must state if he will provide full cooperation with the Swiss authorities who are demanding and requiring information from their counterparts in Malaysia.  Or is he going to merely pay lip service and ignore the requests?

At least in 1MDB, for the longest time, there were "faces" who responded to questions and queries, like Datuk Shahrol Halmi and Arul Kanda.

The question Malaysians have is, who is or are running the show in SRC International?  As far as we are aware, the Managing Director of SRC International, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil has disappeared off the face of Malaysia together with another fellow Director, Datuk Suboh Yassin.  And yet despite their disappearance, they have remained Directors in SRC International over the past year or more.  In fact, when asked, the Prime Minister had responded in Parliament that there is no need at all to appoint new Directors or a new management team.

It is a testament to the failure of Malaysian institutions, entrusted to safeguard the people's money as well as law and order, that nothing concrete has been done to uncover another massive embezzlement of RM4 billion of funds from a state-owned subsidiary.  What have the police, Bank Negara Malaysia, MACC or the Attorney-General's office been doing?  Have they been closing both eyes because the scandal involved the Prime Minister himself?

If Dato' Seri Najib Razak believes that the Swiss allegations are frivolous and untrue, then he should immediately demand the Auditor-General commence a new report specifically on SRC International and table the report to Parliament.  If not, there is no longer any credibility to his administration which will be etched in history as the single biggest den of thieves.

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Datuk Hasan Arifin clearly a “cari makan” PAC Chairman when he refused to reopen 1MDB investigations and initiate new investigations into SRC International

The UK Guardian has labelled the 1MDB imbroglio as the “world’s largest financial scandal”.  This was after the US Attorney-General filed a suit to seize US$1 billion of assets laundered from 1MDB, the single largest action under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) laid out the charges in full, which showed more than US$3.5 billion have been misappropriated from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.

Most importantly, the US DOJ detailed the exact transactions showing how US$731 million of the misappropriated funds ended up in the personal bank account of a “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1).  As the Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Rahman Dahlan rightly pointed out, only an idiot would not know that MO1 refers specifically to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

I have at the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting yesterday demanded that the PAC re-open investigations into 1MDB.  I said that the Malaysian Parliament will be failing to fulfil the grave responsibilities the people have entrusted us with if we fail to react and follow up with the single biggest scandal which has possibly irreparably damaged the nation’s reputation.

Datuk Hasan Arifin refused to allow the PAC to allow the investigations to be re-opened and confirmed his decision with a statement after the meeting.  The Chairman insisted that the PAC has already completed its report tabled to the Parliament in April 2016 and there was no necessity to re-visit the scandal.  He was supported by the Gerakan Member of Parliament for Simpang Renggam, Liang Teck Meng who dismissed the DOJ suit as mere “speculation”.

Datuk Hasan Arifin’s excuse is completely unacceptable.

Previously, the PAC never had the opportunity to call upon the Prime Minister to testify before the Committee because evidence relating to the embezzlement by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was withheld by 1MDB.  Despite repeated requests by the Auditor-General for nearly a year, 1MDB had refused to supply documents, particularly bank statements of its overseas subsidiaries and accounts.

Datuk Hasan Arifin and the Najib administration had even twisted the PAC Report as “clearing Najib” despite the fact that Najib was never investigated as a result of the withheld evidence.

Hence with the DOJ suit, I told the PAC meeting that there is now concrete evidence to demand that the Prime Minister testify before the PAC.  It is the perfect opportunity for Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to confirm or deny the allegations.  I even said that if Najib was able to demonstrate concrete evidence which showed that he has been maligned by the DOJ, and that the monies obtained were indeed from Arab “donors”, I will be the first to stand up to defend and redeem his honour.

Datuk Hasan Arifin has also refused, without even providing any reason for my additional request to initiate investigations against another related Ministry of Finance subsidiary, SRC International Sdn Bhd.  This is despite the fact that the Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali himself has provided evidence of RM27 million being transferred from the company to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s accounts via intermediaries in 2014, as well as the fact that SRC International has failed to table its financial audit since March 2014.

The PAC Chairman's obstinate refusal to accede to the all-important requests led me to believe that he sole purpose is to be a “macai” to obstruct and cover up all allegations on Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.  He has confirmed that he is indeed a “cari makan” Chairman and disgraced the honour and integrity of Malaysia’s supreme legislative body.

I had walked out of the meeting yesterday and will not be attending the meetings scheduled for this week as a mark of protest against the total farce the PAC has become.

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Singapore investigations shifts focus back to the clandestine operations of former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International

Investigations by Singapore authorities have revealed that Ministry of Finance subsidiary, SRC International managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil approved the transfer of US$11.95 million (RM48 million) of the company's funds to Jho Low's associate Tan Kim Loong.

Tan, according to The Wall Street Journal, is the original beneficiary of British Virgin Islands-based Tanore Finance, which had sent US$681 million to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank accounts.

Singapore’s Business Times reported that the latest charge against former BSI banker Yeo Jia Wei was for facilitating, through fraudulent means, the transfer of US$11.95 million from SRC International to Affinity Equity International Partners Ltd, a company owned by Tan.

As international investigations begin to provide a clearer and more detailed picture of the scale of embezzlement via duplicitous transactions by 1MDB and SRC International, investigations in Malaysia on the other hand, have effectively ground to a halt.

While the focus of the international press and local critics have been aimed at the debt-ridden 1MDB, its former subsidiary SRC International has been kept relatively under the radar. However, if 1MDB was found by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to have suffered from gross mismanagement, then stranger and more suspicious transactions have taken place in SRC International.

First of all, given all the shenanigans which took place in SRC International including the latest disclosure in Singapore, and the known fact that Nik Faisal has disappeared off the face of Malaysia for nearly a year, why is Nik Faisal still a Director and the Managing Director of the company?

Secondly, his fellow director, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin has also similarly disappeared from the country. Why have they not been replaced by Ministry of Finance officials? With a Federal Government guaranteed RM4 billion loan from the Malaysian Pension Fund (KWAP), who exactly is running the company today? Or is the company being run via remote control by fugitives?

Thirdly, the Attorney-General has confirmed that RM27 million originating from SRC International found its way into Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal account in July 2014. The Wall Street Journal has further alleged that another RM42 million from SRC International was transferred via intermediaries into the Prime Minister’s account between December 2014 and March 2015.

The Attorney-General said no charges will be filed against the Prime Minister for criminal breach of trust on the amazing excuse that the Prime Minister did not know that the tens of millions deposited into his account came from SRC International. However, in that case, why haven’t those involved in SRC International been investigated and charged for siphoning funds to the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal account?

Fourthly, the Sarawak Report has earlier exposed that Nik Faisal was given a power of attorney to manage Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal account – a damning allegation which has not been denied by the Prime Minister. Would this be a reason why Nik Faisal is given special protection by the powers that be?

Finally, while it is no longer denied that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak received at least RM69 million from SRC International, even if it was unwittingly received, why hasn’t the funds been returned to SRC International?

If the Prime Minister really did not realise then that the RM69 million deposited into his personal bank account came from SRC International, shouldn't he return the money immediately? If Dato’ Seri Najib Razak could be so honest as to return some US$620 million of unutilised donation to his mysterious alleged Arab donor, why could he return the paltry RM69 million?

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, who is also the Finance Minister, must answer these crucial questions pertaining to SRC International during two-week Parliamentary sitting commencing tomorrow.

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Dato' Sri Azalina Othman must clarify contradictions between her statement and MACC's on the Prime Minister receiving money from SRC International

I  had  asked  in  Parliament  last  week  whether  the  Attorney-General  has  investigated  the RM27 million  deposited  into  the  Prime  Minister’s  personal  bank  account  on  8  July  2014, which originated from SRC International.  In addition, RM3.2 million of the sum was used to repay Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s Visa and Mastercard bills. Was this not a criminal breach of trust?

 ...sama ada Peguam Negara telah menyiasat deposit RM27 juta ke dalam akaun bank Menteri        Kewangan  pada  8  Julai  2014  yang  berpunca  daripada SRC  International, yang antaranya  RM3.2 juta digunakan untuk membayar bil kad kreditnya. Adakah ini merupakan kesalahan pecah  amanah? 

The  response from the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department,  Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman is shocking both in the lack of and discrepancy in the details.

"MACC's investigations on SRC International show that the prime minister has not committed any corrupt practice," she said in a written reply to me.

Firstly,  how  could  it  be  that  RM27  million  which  found  its way  to  Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal  bank  account,  which  was  exposed  by  none  other  than  the  Attorney-General himself, be  dismissed  summarily  without  any  basis  that there  was  no  criminal  breach  of trust?

What  is  more,  the  Attorney-General,  Tan  Sri  Apandi  Ali’s  evidence  which  he  showed  to reporters  during  his  press  conference  in  January  showed  how  RM3.2  million  of  the  money was channelled to pay the Prime Minister’s credit card bills.

Unless the Prime Minister or the Attorney-General can give impossibly good reasons why the transfers  took  place,  there  is  a  clear-cut  prima  facie case  to  charge  the  Dato’  Seri  Najib Razak for criminal breach of trust.

Secondly,   Dato’    Azalina’s    assertion    that    Malaysian    Anti-Corruption    Commission’s investigations  on  the  matter  showed  no “corrupt  practice”  is  completely  contrary  to  the statement issued by the MACC Oversight Panel issued on 24 February 2016.

“The panel agreed that MACC resubmit its investigation papers regarding SRC International to  the  Attorney-General  for  review...  Since  MACC’s  investigation  into  the  alleged  RM2.6 billion donation case is still incomplete, the panel recommended to MACC that it continue its investigation  into  the  case  and  seek  the  Attorney-General’s assistance  to  issue  the  Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in order for MACC to obtain evidence and documents from financial institutions based overseas as part of its investigation into the RM2.6 billion,” the statement read.

The  MACC  Oversight  Panel  statement  could  only  mean  that the  investigation  is  still “incomplete”  and  MACC  was  seeking  the  assistance  of  the  Attorney-General  to  obtain overseas MLA to access additional evidence.

Dato’  Sri  Azalina Othman  must  clarify  why  her  statement  contradicted  that  of  the  MACC’s. Has she misled  the  parliament in  her  reply in  order  to exonerate  her  direct  superior,  Dato’Seri Najib Razak.

If she fails to provide clarifications and evidence that MACC has indeed “cleared” the Prime Minister of all crimes, that we will consider referring the Minister to the House Committee of Rights and Privileges for intentionally misleading the Parliament.

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