Saturday 23 April 2016

MALAYSIA: IGP's Company Is Flogging Guns In Kuala Lumpur

FROM SARAWAK REPORT, 22 APRIL 2016


IGP's Company Is Flogging Guns In KL!  MAJOR EXCLUSIVE

A company owned by Malaysia's top policeman, the Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, is selling guns for which only he can issue permits, according to its own website!


She could recommend us a Glock, said the assistant at Nilai Arms & Ammunition this week.

The KL company boasts online that it can offer the “best selection” of guns available, and we had explained we were looking for something suitable for our ‘bodyguard’.

Niloh displays an array of weapons for sale, both of the sort used for hunting and of the sort that gangsters use to kill.
Lethal weapons - take your pick
Lethal weapons – take your pick
As its name suggests, Nilai also sells ammunition.  “Out of ammo?” it advertises with a catchy American ring, “call NAA”. Displayed are cartridges and deadly bullets.
Shotgun cartridges... as well as deadly bullets!
Shotgun cartridges… as well as deadly bullets!

Need a permit?

In Malaysia, of course, the use and ownership of guns is highly restricted.  In fact, as the site helpfully points out, you need to acquire a permit signed not only by your district police chief, but also the state police chief and indeed the national police chief (the IGP) as well.

It’s quite a lot to organise.
Google translation of the section of the police website on guns linked to by the Nilai website http://www.rmp.gov.my/pelesenan-senjata-api/pengenalan
Google translation of the section of the police website on guns linked to by the Nilai website
 – http://www.rmp.gov.my/pelesenan-senjata-api/pengenalan
However, Sarawak Report was drawn to Nilai arms by disgruntled people, who got in touch, because it has become a known thing, they said, that if you want to get that permit without excessive fuss and bother, then you had better go through this particular company to buy your weapon.
” Applicants for import / usage license, when they failed to get the permits, they will resort to appoint NAA, which will smooth the application” was how one person contacting Sarawak Report explained the situation.
How come?
Sarawak Report pulled the company records for Nilai Arms & Ammunition Sdn Bhd, which is registered in KL, and found some exceedingly interesting ownership details. The majority of the shares belong to a young woman, born in 1984.
Juwiza Binti Khalid is the second daughter of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Khalid Abu Bakar.
IGP's 32 year old daughter owns the company set up the year before he was appointed
IGP’s 32 year old daughter is the majority owner of the company, set up in 2012 just before Abu
 Bakar was appointed
Bigwigs in Malaysia are no strangers to conflict of interest, of course, but this example of it is surely one of the most breath-taking!

The fact that the man, who is supposedly in charge of keeping law and order on the streets, to which end a tight control over guns means that only he can sign permits, actually owns a company which sells these weapons and can assist in “smoothing the application” for his signature, simply defies belief.

Office in KL
Office in KL
It would appear that Abu Bakar spends his day job catching dangerous criminals, only to go home to sign off lucrative permits to allow their weapons (sold by his own private company) to be made available on the streets.

As one KL observer remarked bitterly to Sarawak Report “the police have an interest in the town becoming more dangerous for middle class folk. It means they have to live in compounds and hire former police officers to be their bodyguards”.

One can forgive the cynicism. 

 Because Khalid stands to get richer the more dangerous the streets become and his retired colleagues will thank him for the increase in bodyguard positions!

What about those who cannot afford a bodyguard, but who pay the taxes that fund the IGP and all his men?

This is why it is so supremely important that people in public positions avoid all such conflicts of interest, whether they hold the shares themselves or put them in the names of their young daughter.

When we started to press for further help and information on getting our Glock (and permit) the shop assistant gave us the phone number for her “boss”, whom she told us was Haji Mohd Isa. He was the one to talk to.

Other shareholder is the village head from IGP's home town, born in the very same year!
Other shareholder is the village head from IGP’s home town, born in the very same year!
The boss she was referring to, of course, is none other than the other shareholder in the company, Mohd Isa bin Hussin.

Mohd Isa is the village chief of Kampung Gebok, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan, the same region as Nilai.

Should we consider it a coincidence that IGP Khalid Abu Baker was born in Kg Gebok, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan in the same year of 1957 as this village chief?

One can only assume that these two village lads went to school together, were probably friends and went hunting together as well!

[update – SR has now been informed that the relationship is even closer. That Mohd Isa bin Hussin is the IGP’s brother in law!]

But we could not check because Mohd Isa wasn’t picking up the phone.

The current IGP was appointed in May 2013, a year after he opened his company, and has proved extremely controversial, having focused his activities on persecuting civil rights activists and freedom of speech, in line with the present government’s apparent priority of protecting the position of the Prime Minister over any other consideration.

No doubts about it
No doubts about it
Khalid has opened a special five man unit to scour Tweets for ‘seditious tendencies’ and only last week he arrested one opposition MP on the steps of Parliament, for saying he had read a secret document that showed corruption at 1MDB.

He has also been condemned for supporting the unlawful shooting by a police officer of a 15 year old boy, shot 21 times by pursuing cops.

What’s more, he remains, together with the handpicked AG, the most important champion of the current Prime Minister, who is drowning in evidence of corruption over 1MDB.

So, what chance is there of action against this ‘bit of business on the side’ by IGP Khaled Abu Bakar?

One victim of the situation commented to Sarawak Report today:
“A country that if free and clear of any governance and policing of money launderers is prone to become a handy trading hub for organised crime and terrorism and this is one example of what is happening on a very big scale in Malaysia” said Pascal Najadi, whose father was gunned down on the streets of KL by a hired assassin whom the police refused to prosecute in 2013.

-SARAWAK REPORT 

Thursday 7 April 2016

Complete List of PEOPLE Named in the Panama Papers


Heads of state

  • Argentina Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina
  • Saudi Arabia Salman, King of Saudi Arabia
  • United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi
  • Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine

Former heads of state

  • Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, former Emir of Qatar
  • Sudan Ahmed al-Mirghani, former President of Sudan
  • Heads of government
  • Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (resigned April 5, 2016)

Former heads of government

  • Georgia (country) Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Prime Minister of Georgia
  • Iraq Ayad Allawi, former Acting Prime Minister of Iraq
  • Jordan Ali Abu al-Ragheb, former Prime Minister of Jordan
  • Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former Prime Minister of Qatar
  • Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine
  • Moldova Ion Sturza, former Prime Minister of Moldova

Other government officials

  • Algeria -Abdeslam Bouchouareb, Minister of Industry and Mines
  • Andorra -Jordi Cinca, Minister of Finance
  • Angola -José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, Minister of Petroleum
  • Argentina – Néstor Grindetti, Mayor of Lanús
  • Botswana- Ian Kirby, President of the Botswana Court of Appeal and former Attorney General
  • Brazil – Joaquim Barbosa, former President of the Supreme Federal Court,Eduardo Cunha, President of the Chamber of Deputies,Edison Lobão, Member of the Senate and former Minister of Mines and Energy,João Lyra, Member of the Chamber of Deputies
  • Cambodia – Ang Vong Vathana, Minister of Justice
  • Chile -Alfredo Ovalle Rodríguez, intelligence agency associate
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo,,Jaynet Kabila, Member of the National Assembly
  • Republic of the Congo – Bruno Itoua, Minister of Scientific Research and Technical Innovation and former Chairman of the SNPC
  • Ecuador – Galo Chiriboga, current Attorney General,Pedro Delgado, cousin of President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, and former Governor of the Central Bank
  • France – Patrick Balkany, Member of the National Assembly and Mayor of Levallois-Perret,Jérôme Cahuzac, former Minister of the Budget,Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the National Front and father of current party leader Marine Le Pen
  • Greece – Stavros Papastavrou, advisor of former Prime Ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras
  • Hungary – Zsolt Horváth, former Member of the National Assembly
  • Iceland -Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance,Júlíus Vífill Ingvarsson, Member of Reykjavík City Council (resigned April 5, 2016),Ólöf Nordal, Minister of the Interior
  • India -Anurag Kejriwal, former President of the Lok Satta Party Delhi Branch, Anil Vasudeva Salgaocar, A Goa-based mining baron and former MLA
  • Kenya -Kalpana Rawal, Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
  • Malta -Konrad Mizzi, Minister of Energy and Health
  • Nigeria -James Ibori, former Governor of Delta State
  • North Korea -Kim Chol Sam, Daedong Credit Bank representative based in Dalian and presumed high official
  • Palestine -Mohammad Mustafa, former Minister of National Economy
  • Panama – Riccardo Francolini, former chairman of the state-owned Savings Bank
  • Peru -César Almeyda, Director of the National Intelligence Service
  • Poland -Paweł Piskorski, former Mayor of Warsaw
  • Rwanda -Emmanuel Ndahiro, brigadier general and former chief of the intelligence agency
  • Saudi Arabia -Muhammad bin Nayef, Crown Prince and Minister of the Interior of Saudi Arabia
  • Sweden -Frank Belfrage, former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
  • United Kingdom -Michael Ashcroft, retired member of the House of Lords,Tony Baldry, former Conservative MP for Banbury,Michael Mates, former Conservative MP for East Hampshire,Pamela Sharples, Member of the House of Lords
  • Venezuela -Victor Cruz Weffer, former commander-in-chief of the army,Jesús Villanueva, former Director of PDVSA
  • Zambia -Atan Shansonga, former Ambassador to the United States

Relatives and associates of government officials

  • Argentina – Daniel Muñoz, aide to former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Néstor Kirchner
  • Azerbaijan – Mehriban Aliyeva, Leyla Aliyeva, Arzu Aliyeva, Heydar Aliyev and Sevil Aliyeva, family of President Ilham Aliyev
  • Brazil -Idalécio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira, potential briber of the Brazilian President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha and a Portuguese entrepeneur
  • Canada -Anthony Merchant, husband of Senator Pana Merchant.
  • China -Patrick Henri Devillers, French business associate of Gu Kailai, convicted murderer and wife of former Minister of Commerce and Member of the Politburo Bo Xilai,Deng Jiagui, brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping,Jasmine Li, granddaughter of former Member of the Politburo Jia Qinglin,Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Premier Li Peng
  • Ecuador -Javier Molina Bonilla, former advisor to Director of the National Intelligence Secretariat Rommy Vallejo
  • Egypt -Alaa Mubarak, son of former President Hosni Mubarak
  • France -Frédéric Chatillon, business associate of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front,Arnaud Claude, former law partner of former President Nicolas Sarkozy,Nicolas Crochet, accounting associate of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front
  • Ghana – John Addo Kufuor, son of former President John Kufuor
  • Guinea- Mamadie Touré, widow of former President Lansana Conté
  • Honduras -César Rosenthal, son of former Vice President Jaime Rosenthal
  • Ireland -Frank Flannery, political consultant and Fine Gael’s former Director of Organisations and Strategy
  • Italy -Giuseppe Donaldo Nicosia, convicted of bribery alongside former Senator Marcello Dell’Utri
  • India -Jehangir Soli Sorabjee, son of former attorney general Soli Sorabjee and a honorary consultant physician at Bombay Hospital,Harish Salve, India’s leading lawyers and son of N. K. P. Salve, member of the Indian National Congress party,Rajendra Patil, son-in-law of veteran Congressman and Karnataka Horticulture Minister Shamanuru Shivashankarappa and a businessman
  • Ivory Coast -Jean-Claude N’Da Ametchi, associate of former President Laurent Gbagbo
  • Kazakhstan -Nurali Aliyev, grandson of President Nursultan Nazarbayev
  • Malaysia -Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, son of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his cousin
  • Mexico -Juan Armando Hinojosa, “favourite contractor” of President Enrique Peña Nieto
  • Morocco -Mounir Majidi, personal secretary of King Mohammed VI
  • Pakistan -Maryam Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz Sharif and Hussain Nawaz Sharif, children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
  • Russia -Sergei Roldugin, Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg, friends of President Vladimir Putin
  • Senegal -Mamadou Pouye, friend of Karim Wade, himself the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade
  • South Africa – Khulubuse Zuma, nephew of President Jacob Zuma
  • South Korea -Ro Jae-Hun, son of former President Roh Tae-woo
  • Spain -Pilar de Borbón, sister of former King Juan Carlos I,Micaela Domecq Solís-Beaumont, wife of Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and former Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment,Oleguer Pujol, son of Jordi Pujol i Soley, former President of Catalonia
  • Syria- Rami and Hafez Makhlouf, cousins of President Bashar al-Assad
  • United Kingdom -Ian Cameron, father of Prime Minister David Cameron
  • United Nations -Kojo Annan, son of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Sports personalities

  • Juan Pedro Damiani, Uruguayan member of the FIFA Ethics Committee
  • Eugenio Figueredo, Uruguayan American former president of CONMEBOL and vice president and member of the ethics committee of FIFA
  • Gianni Infantino, Swiss-Italian president of FIFA
  • Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, Argentine businessmen also implicated in the 2015 FIFA corruption case
  • Michel Platini, French former president of UEFA
  • Jérôme Valcke, French former secretary general of FIFA
  • Mattias Asper, Valeri Karpin, Nihat Kahveci, Tayfun Korkut, Darko Kovačević, Gabriel Schürrer and Sander Westerveld had accounts created by Real Sociedad and its president(s) principally Iñaki Otegui, under the leadership of José Luis Astiazarán, Miguel Fuentes, María de la Peña, Juan Larzábal and Iñaki Badiola
  • Gabriel Heinze, Argentine former footballer, account (with his mother) during Manchester United years
  • Lionel Messi, footballer for Barcelona and the Argentine national team
  • Brian Steen Nielsen, Danish former footballer and sports director of Aarhus Gymnastikforening
  • Marc Rieper, Danish retired footballer
  • Clarence Seedorf, Dutch former footballer
  • Leonardo Ulloa, Argentine footballer
  • Iván Zamorano, Chilean retired footballer, account during Real Madrid years
  • Àlex Crivillé, Spanish former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer
  • Nico Rosberg, German Formula 1 driver at Mercedes AMG Petronas
  • Jarno Trulli, Italian former Formula 1 driver
  • Tomas Berdych, Czech professional tennis player on the ATP World Tour, currently ranked world number seven
  • Nick Faldo, English professional golfer on the PGA European Tour, now mainly an on-air golf analyst

Entertainment personalities

  • Agustín Almodóvar, Spanish film producer and younger brother of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar
  • Pedro Almodóvar, Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former actor
  • Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
  • Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Indian actress and former Miss World.
  • Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor
  • Franco Dragone, Italian Belgian theatre director, known for his work for Cirque du Soleil
  • David Geffen, Hollywood mogul, co-founder of DreamWorks
  • Vinod Adani, Indian businessman, elder brother of Gautam Adani, Adani Group
  • Bank Leumi’s representatives and board members.
  • Hollman Carranza, son of Colombian emerald mogul Víctor Carranza
  • Rattan Chadha, Indian-born Dutch businessman, founder of Mexx clothing
  • Jacob Engel, Israeli businessman active in the African mining industry.
  • Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Italian businessman and politician
  • Anthony Gumbiner, British businessman, chairman of Hallman Group
  • Solomon Humes, Bahamian bishop of a small denomination
  • Soulieman Marouf, British Syrian businessman Nakash family members
  • Idan Ofer, London-based Israeli business magnate and philanthropist, founder of Tanker Pacific.
  • Igor Olenicoff, American billionaire
  • Marianna Olszewski, American financial author and life coach.
  • K P Singh, Indian businessman
  • Frank Timiș, Romanian-born Australian businessman
  • Dov Weissglass, Israeli lawyer and business man who has been closely linked with the Middle East peace process, particularly under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
  • Teddy Sagi, a London-based Israeli billionaire businessman founder of Playtech and the majority shareholder of Market Tech Holdings, which owns London’s Camden Market, and of two AIM-listed technology companies.
  • Jacob Weinroth, an Israeli attorney, founder partner of Dr. J. Weinroth & Co. Law Office and owner and director of Sapir Holdings.
  • Benjamin Wey, Chinese American financier and president of New York Global Group Main shareholders of Anheuser-Busch InBev
  • Mallika Srinivasan,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TAFE – Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited and Indira Sivasailam (died in December 2008)
  • Abdul Rashid Mir, founder and CEO of Cottage Industries Exposition Limited (CIE) & Tabasum Mir
  • Zavaray Poonawalla, Brother of billionaire Cyrus S. Poonawalla and heads the managing committee of Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC)
  • Mohan Lal Lohia, Father of Sri Prakash Lohia, founder and chairman of Indorama Corporation
  • Onkar Kanwar, Chairman & MD of Apollo Tyres
  • Garware family, family of Abasaheb Garware, was a pioneering industrialist from Maharashtra state in India
  • Shishir K Bajoria, promoter of SK Bajoria Group, which has steel refractory units
  • Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Others

  • Marllory Chacón Rossell, Guatemalan drug trafficker.
  • Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa, Colombian drug trafficker, head of the Cifuentes-Villa Drug Trafficking Organization and partner of Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán.
  • Rafael Caro Quintero, Mexican drug trafficker and one of the founders of the now-disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel.
  • Iqbal Mirchi[73] (died 14 August 2013), right-hand man of India’s most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim
  • Gonzalo Delaveu, head of global corruption watchdog Transparency International’s Chile branch (resigned 4 April 2016)

Tuesday 5 April 2016

How 1MDB's Stolen Money Funded Top UK Private Schools

FROM SARAWAK REPORT


4 APRIL 2016

One of the clients of the off-shore incorporations firm Mossack Fonseca, exposed in the so-called Panama Papers this week, was PetroSaudi’s Tarek Obaid.

Using a web of off-shore vehicles, he and fellow director Patrick Mahony secretly invested some of the millions they obtained in illegal backhanders from Malaysia’s Development fund in a private education company that bought up some of the UK’s poshest private schools.

Documents acquired by Sarawak Report reveal that the two men are the secret funders behind the self proclaimed entrepreneur, Marwan Naja, who acts as Chairman of Bellevue Education, a fast growing business, which has acquired 12 lucrative schools since 2010.

The Bellevue Education Group, previously named The Really Great Education Company Limited, is officially run from Geneva, although its UK registered company address is the PetroSaudi headquarters in Curzon Street.

 In fact, the business is primarily owned by two vehicles named Plato One and Plato Two based in Hong Kong, which are in turn controlled by Mahony together with an off-shore company owned by Obaid called Maplehill Property Limited (BVI).

In the course of setting up the complex ownership structure in 2010 Marwan (who has just one share) reported he had:
 “taken specific tax advice from a firm of internationally recognised accountants which has confirmed to him in writing that no Tax will be payable.. as a result of any dividends, distributions or other returns..whether during the Investment or following an exit from the Investment”
"Passionate about education" - Mark Malley has cashed in on his passion
“Passionate about education” – Mark Malley has cashed in on his passion
The revelations will be an embarrassment to the high profile educationalist, Mark Malley, who set up the company, after what he claims was a highly successful stint as a headmaster, turning around failing schools.

He is the Chief Executive of Bellevue Education Group and owns shares in the fast expanding venture, which plainly seeks to cash in on a perceived burgeoning market for private early years schools in and around London.

The re-structuring and re-branding of Bellevue took place in late 2010, after a major initial injection of five and a half million pounds from the new secret investors, who engaged Marwan Naja to represent their interests, according to documents obtained by Sarawak Report.

The two PetroSaudi directors agreed to make available more cash when needed to expand the project and we have evidence they raised over £20 million (RM110 million) in share capital and lending over the course of the next few months.

Patrick Mahony -
Patrick Mahony –
The cash flow became available not long after both men received large sums of money directly into their private JP Morgan Suisse bank accounts from the now fugitive Malaysian businessmen Jho Low, which was termed as a payment for their role in “brokering” the billion dollar 1MDB PetroSaudi joint venture in September 2009 – from which Low siphoned out US$700 million into his private company Good Star Limited.
Tarek Obaid received US$85 million in this initial backhander, of which bank accounts show US$33 million was passed on to Mahony. 

Neither man had been previously wealthy, however the injection of a further US$300 million into their company PetroSaudi, combined with further later backhanders from 1MDB via Low transformed their fortunes.

Avoiding tax on stolen cash

Sarawak Report has already reported how, within a month of receiving his pay out for ‘fronting’ Jho Low’s theft from 1MDB, Mahony had bought a £6 million town housein London’s swanky Notting Hill.
Tarek Obaid, was transformed from a cash hungry youth in Geneva to the head of a 'philanthropist family foundation' by his involvement in the 2009 PetroSaudi heist.
Tarek Obaid, was transformed from a cash hungry youth in Geneva to the head of a ‘philanthropist family foundation’ by his involvement in the 2009 PetroSaudi heist.

He went to considerable lengths, hiring advisors and setting up another set of complex off-shore companies, in order to register the ownership as ‘non-domicile’, thereby to again avoid paying tax.

The money has, of course, been lost to Malaysia’s own development opportunities, in the name of which these public funds were originally borrowed.

Sarawak, which faces a state election at the end of the month, still suffers from an appallingly low education provision for its indigenous rural communities, many of whom are forced to send their very young children to boarding schools, situated days away from their homes.

The shocking conditions of these premises and low educational attainment of pupils has been a constant issue, which the BN government has for decades promised to address, particularly at elections – however, the money has always disappeared.
Development money could have helped these disadvantaged children, whose plight caused outrage in Sarawak
Development money could have helped these disadvantaged children, 
whose plight caused outrage in Sarawak
The irony will not be lost on these communities that in this case Malaysia’s development cash has been invested in further milking the parents of privileged western children, by the tax evading ‘entrepreneurs’, who stole it together with crony political operators, including Jho Low.

In the name of Plato

Documents, which Sarawak Report has passed on to British crime agencies, clearly show the covert methods used by Mahony and Obaid to privately invest stolen millions in a promising education business in the UK, while avoiding tax.

Managing the operation was Marwan Naja, who had left his position as private equity manager at the Swiss private Pictiet Bank in order to concentrate on his own private investment business Manixer in 2010… an interest he had apparently run in parallel to his official banking role for over a decade.
Same address as PetroSaudi in Geneva
Same address as PetroSaudi in Geneva
His close links with PetroSaudi are illustrated by the fact that his office for this company resides in the very same building as PetroSaudi’s office at 86 Rue du Rhone in Geneva.

Jho Low went to top private school, Harrow
Jho Low went to top private school, Harrow
The connection with the actual investors behind this company Chairman is further emphasised by the fact that Bellevue’s London office is registered at PetroSaudi’s 1 Curzon Street address in Mayfair.

Patrick Mahony is also listed as a Director of Bellevue Group in the UK company records, along with Malley and Marwan Naja.

The documents setting up the private investment deal between Malley, Marwan and PetroSaudi show that Marwan used his former Pictiet Bank as the vehicle for launching the arrangement in Hong Kong.

First the bank set up a Hong Kong company called Mercer & Spring, in which Naja held one share.  Then it established a wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary named Plato One, in which Obaid and Mahony were invited to invest.

British company records show that Plato One is a shareholder of Bellevue Education Group International Limited, which in turn is the owner of Bellevue Education Group.
Bellevue Education Group International Limited - slice of the shares for Malley but who owns Plato One and Two?
Bellevue Education Group International Limited – slice of the shares
 for Malley but who owns Plato One and Two?
Research by Sarawak Report shows that shares in Plato One were offered to Mahony and Maplehill property group at £10 each on the basis Plato would acquire a share of Mr Malley’s company. Maplehill (Obaid) subscribed to around 2/3 of these for £2,650,000 – Mahony took the rest.

The eventual investment in the then Really Great Education Company, at that point 100% owned by Malley, was projected to be £8 million according to the proposal put forward by Naja.
Deal on Plato One 20th September 2010
Deal on Plato One 20th September 2010
Emails from Marwan Naja seen by Sarawak Report show that a further £1.5 million was raised less that a week later to invest in the venture.
Email from Marwan Naja to PetroSaudi's legal team
Email from Marwan Naja to PetroSaudi’s legal team
Hong Kong company records also show that Plato Two, incorporated a year later and now the larger shareholder of Bellevue, also largely belongs to Mahony and Maplehill:
Plato Two - Hong Kong company directory
Plato Two – Hong Kong company directory
By the time Plato Two was incorporated in November 2011, the two investors were ready to buy in deeper, investing no less than £15 million in the venture, according to the articles of association of the company and a resolution made at PetroSaudi’s Mayfair Offices. The majority of the money was put in by Tarek’s Maplehill Property (see above).
Another £15 million invested in UK private schools.
Another £15 million invested in UK private schools.
There is no doubt as to who the sole shareholder and director of Maplehill was at this time, because he signed a resolution for the company on 11th October 2010 in his capacity as sole director and shareholder, agreeing to the investment in Mark Malley’s eduction company.

  However documents and emails from the PetroSaudi database show that the investment was done through the London office of that company using PetroSaudi staff and lawyers.
Tarek Obaid signed as sole director and shareholder in Sept 2010
Tarek Obaid signed as sole director and shareholder in October 2010
These revelations about owners of Bellevue and their stolen cash is likely to spark further concerns over a controversial acquisition by the company of a former state school premises in London, which has been backed by the Department of Education in London, but which campaigners say has taken away potential funds from less privileged state education facilities.

It seems that even in the UK, Mahony and his fellow thieves are using their illegitimate gains to disadvantage less privileged children, in order to make themselves richer.

Sunday 3 April 2016

1MDB SCANDAL: THE PLOT THICKENS.....

FROM THE SARAWAK REPORT

Luxembourg Pours Shivering Cold Water Onto Sarawak's Election Campaign Launch

Luxembourg Pours Shivering Cold Water Onto Sarawak's Election Campaign Launch

After months of dithering and of playing hot and cold over his Federal BN masters, the Chief Minister has finally announced that the Sarawak state election will be held at the end of the month – almost the last legally available date.

Adenan did so after a strong show of support for Najib, thereby dismissing the widespread concerns about corruption nationally as well as locally.  Nothing has been done to end the Taib family’s control of the economy during Adenan’s period in office, nor the grip of the crony timber and plantation companies.

So, the CM has definitively nailed PBB’s colours to BN’s mast, just as the ship looks ready to sink – it signals a choppy campaign.

Luxembourg prosecutor’s statement deciphered

Within hours of that development, yet more confirmation of the 1MDB corruption scandal started pouring out from international law enforcers.

Amidst a welter of new detail on Najib’s SRC funded credit card spending, Sarawak Report disclosed that the United States has landed an extradition request against the ex-Aabar CEO, Mohamed Al Husseiny, in Abu Dhabi.  It marks the first international arrest over 1MDB.

Then Reuters published a devastating new statement by the Luxembourg State Prosecutor, confirming that the state has joined the US, UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore in launching a judicial inquiry into money it says was misappropriated from 1MDB and processed through their jurisdiction.

Sarawak Report can decode the messages in that statement, which there is little doubt refers to money laundering already reported in this blog, namely the half billion dollars which passed through an account owned by the former Aabar Chairman, Khadem Al Qubaisi at the Luxembourg branch of Edmond de Rothschild, Banque Privee (BPERE):
Statement from Luxembourg carried by Reuters and reported in UK Daily Mail
Statement from Luxembourg carried by Reuters and reported in UK Daily Mail
The detail in the statement above makes it clear that the Luxembourg authorities are referring to five payments, which Sarawak Report has earlier reported were made into Al Qubaisi’s Vasco Trust account at Edmond de Rothschild Banque Privee (BPERE) in 2012/3, by two BVI companies Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited and Good Star Limited.
Payments recorded in a statement on Khadem Al Qubaisi's Vasco Trust account at BPERE Luxembourg - 4 in 2012 from Blackstone and 1 in 2013 from Good Star totalling half a billion dollars
Payments recorded in a statement on Khadem Al Qubaisi’s Vasco
Trust account at BPERE Luxembourg – 4 in 2012 from Blackstone
and 1 in 2013 from Good Star totalling half a billion dollars

Sarawak Report has revealed that both these companies (now closed) were owned by Jho Low, whose deputy Seet Li Lin was been registered as the signatory for both.

We have also revealed that it was Good Star Limited, which received much of the money from 1MDB (US$1,03 billion), siphoned out of the early PetroSaudi deals.

And further reported that Blackstone Asia Real Eastate Partners Limited separately paid US$170 million into Najib’s own personal accounts between 2011-12, an allegation corroborated by ABC Australia’s Four Corners programme earlier this week.

Power purchase bond deals

Mystery billionaire - KAQ's wealth developed in months
Mystery billionaire – KAQ’s wealth developed in months
The Luxembourg prosecutor’s statement also makes clear where the authorities suspect this money arriving in Khadem’s accounts at BPERE originated from, in that it refers to its suspicion that “sums paid upon the issuance of two bonds in May and October 2012″were misappropriated from off-shore accounts held by the Malaysian government .

The only likely reference is to the two power purchase deals conducted by 1MDB in 2012, which raised US$1.75 billion for the purchase Tanjung Energy in May 2012, followed by another US$1.75 billion for Energy Langat in October 2012.

Both these deals, which were drawn up by Goldman Sachs, are now known to have leaked huge sums of money, thanks to a complicated arrangement involving a ‘co-guarantee’ from the Abu Dhabi Aabar fund, of which Al Qubaisi was Chairman.

1MDB agreed to pay a total of US$2.4  billion for the guarantees on the two bonds, plus for the termination of various options allowed on the deal to Aabar.

However, those payments never arrived at the actual IPIC subsidiary.
Instead, investigations by the Wall Street Journal have established that much of the money went to a similarly named, but privately owned BVI company called Aabar PJS Limited, which Sarawak Report has learnt was incorporated by Khadem Al Qubaisi and his side-kick, Mohamed Al Husseiny – the man now detained in Abu Dhabi.

The money trail begins to emerge

Incorporated in November 2010 Blackstone laundered hundreds of millions before its closure shortly after the  malysian election
Incorporated in November 2010 Blackstone laundered hundreds of
millions before its closure shortly after the malaysian election
Given its statement, Luxembourg has clearly concluded that some of this money was later transferred into Khadem’s BPERE accounts from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.

So, it appears international regulators now believe that the money trail went from Goldman Sachs to Aabar PJS Limited, then to Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited and finally on to Khadem Al Qubaisi’s personal VASCO Trust account at BPERE.

This is what the Luxembourg statement implies and the dates certainly match.

After all, the Tanjung Energy bond was raised 11th May 2012 and the first whopping US$158 million dollar payment (see above) pitched up in the BPERE account from Blackstone on 29th May 2012.  There was another payment in August again from Blackstone.

The 1MDB Energy Langat bond was later raised in October and the next payments were subsequent to that – one from Blackstone to Khadem on 31st October, one in December.

A final US$20 million came in early in 2013 from Good Star, another Jho Low concern,

The danger to Najib

The daily further revelations about these 1MDB money trails mean that the difficulty of the questions facing Najib is escalating by the hour.

This is not least because the companies caught paying money into Khadem’s BPERE accounts, which the regulators are now publicly linking to 1MDB, have also been paying money into Najib’s accounts. 

 Namely Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners, which has been cited in a letter from a mysterious Saudi Prince and also an account in the name of Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Bandar Alsaud:
'Prince Banda bin turkey al Saud', who was revealed as a sender account to Najib also sent money to Khadem in Luxembourg











‘Prince Faisal bin Turkey Bin Bandar AlSaud’, who was revealed
as a sender account to Najib, also sent money to Khadem (above)
in Luxembourg

Yesterday Putrajaya issued a self-crucifying statement, in which it welcomed the publication by ABC Four Corners of a supposed letter from the unidentified ‘prince’, claiming it was a vindication of Najib’s claims that he had received money from a royal Saudi donor.
In that letter the ‘prince’ said that some of his future ‘donations’ would come from what he called his company, Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited.  Transfer documents seen by Four Corners further confirm the payments.

This means that the Prime Minister’s Office have now officially acknowledged, on behalf of Najib, that he did receive payments from Blackstone – a company which is now the subject of money-laundering investigations by the Luxembourg authorities, specifically on the suspicion that it was handling money misappropriated from 1MDB.

Oh dear.