Najib's Secret Deal With China To Pay Off 1MDB (And Jho Low's) Debts

FROM SARAWAK REPORT   26 JULY 2016

OUTRAGE! - Najib's Secret Deal With China To Pay Off 1MDB (And Jho Low's) Debts! - SHOCK EXCLUSIVE

• 26 July 2016
 
• 284 comments

Marked “For Internal Use Only” an Appendix to a Term Sheet due to be approved by the Malaysian Cabinet tomorrow (27th July) lays out in detailed figures how  Najib plans for over US$7 billion in accumulated 1MDB/Jho Low company debts to be wiped out by taxpayers in a secret deal between his Ministry of Finance and the Chinese state company CCCC (China Communications Construction Company).

The PM’s ‘cunning plan’ is to get the Malaysian Government to agree to inflate the actual cost of the East Coast Rail Project from only RM30 billion to RM60 billion, all to be borrowed from the Chinese Government, in order to disguise the payment of 1MDB’s (and Jho Low’s) company debts!

Sarawak Report can reveal the secret figures behind the deal, which has been inflated 100% to hide the payments for 1MDB!

A whistleblower, who has supplied full details of the project, described the plan to Sarawak Report:

“The Malaysian Government is planning to award an overvalued project to launder money in order to fill the loophole of 1MDB.
The plan is to award the East Coast Rail Project to a Chinese Company, China Communication Construction Company Limited (CCCC). The initial budget for the project is MYR 30b, but they have overvalued the project for another MYR 30b, making it MYR 60b. The extra MYR 30b will be use to launder out cash to 1MDB related companies.
The project has been proposed to the cabinet on 25/7/2016 and will be approved by the cabinet on 27/7/2016 with total value of MYR 60b.
The Chinese company, which is backed by the China Government, will help pay off the 1MDB dept in advance and progressively. In return, this Chinese company will be rewarded with high profits and land, and of course extra influence with the Malaysian government”.

Doubling the cost of mega-project

The outrageous plan is blatantly laid out in the term sheet and internal report, which have been leaked to Sarawak Report.

The report says baldly that the actual cost of building the railway, has only been estimated by CCCC at RM27 billion. However, there is to be a so-called “Additional Differential” cost of RM29.85 billion, which will more than double the cost to make a total bill of RM60 billion, including a fat percentage of profit for the company (handily based on the total and not just the construction costs):

Najib plans to double the cost of the Railway to RM60 billion to hide his 1MDB missing money

The company makes no bones about the incentives provided by the Malaysian Government in this “Direct Contract”, meaning that there was no open tender to get the best deal for the project.

CCCC says it has been given land on generous terms, including a chunk of land which was given cheap by Najib to 1MDB, then inflated in value at Ayer Item – the land which is valued at US$1.3 billion will be offered to CCCC for US$850 million.

CCCC will also gets tax breaks including from GST for the next ten years. And then, as a Chinese State-owned company CCCC notes the benefit of the extended influence over Malaysia the project and the massive loan of the cash (at a generous 2% interest rate) will provide.

So much for Najib Razak’s much vaunted ‘inward investment’ plans from fellow Islamic countries and his stirring of hatred against the so-called ‘Chinese Tsunami’!

What is in this deceitful deal for the Chinese? Just take a look!

Sneaking 1MDB’s debts into the project

The quid pro quo for the Chinese partners in this lucrative deal is to assist in Najib’s corrupted exit strategy for getting shot of his multi-billion dollar debts at 1MDB at a total cost of US$5.63 billion!

The first priority being to get 1MDB off the hook over its outstanding payments to Abu Dhabi’s IPIC.  In the first instance this will be achieved through the payment of the $850 million to 1MDB for the Ayer Item land, but after that the company will assume the repayment of the remaining debts for the disastrous ‘power purchase’ and ‘strategic partnership loans’ which lost billions (mainly stolen).

The Malaysian taxpayer will of course have to pay the whole lot back with interest over the next 7 years in payments, all planned to be disguised by the inflated Rail Project!

Sneaking a write off of 1MDB’s debts in an up-front payment

Laughably, this outlay is set to be disguised by a repayment in ‘assets’ valued to the same amount of US$5.63 billion.  The assets concerned are largely duds – vaunted ‘liquid and cash assets’ tucked away by 1MDB in dodgy bank accounts, including the 1MDB Brazen Sky account at BSI (alleged worth $940 milllion) and also the supposed assets of 1MDB Global at BSI, (alleged worth US$1.56 billion).

Significantly, we note that the 1MDB Global money, which was raised through a Goldman Sachs loan, is now also described as ‘Units’, raising the probability that these are in fact worthless pieces of paper representing bogus investments, similar to the ‘Units’ in Brazen Sky, which would imply, that like the PetroSaudi funds, the billions raised by 1MDB Global have all been stolen:

Worthless ‘units’ from Brazen Sky and 1MDB Global are being dumped into the deal as if they had been ‘bought’, whereas in fact all costs are being separately covered by the ‘additional items’ on the inflated projected

List of Payments totals US$7.5 billion/ RM29.8 billion

Just last week the United States DOJ explained in searing detail how all that missing 1MDB money, which is now being sneaked onto the East Coast Rail tab, was stolen by Najib and his family and associates, including Jho Low and IPIC’s Khadem Al Qubaisi, to be spent on gambling, drinking, jets, yachts, record-breaking fine art purchases(in many cases depicting under-dressed female forms).

The report sheet in our possession lays out in precise detail what CCCC/The Chinese Government has agreed to funnel through the project, in order to get Najib off the hook on all his problems.

The astonishing list contained in an Appendix to the agreement is clearly costed and totals over US$7,5 billion. It includes writing off 1MDB’s debts to the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund IPIC, which is currently suing 1MDB to the tune of US$6.5 billion over unpaid guarantees.

RM30 billion ‘Added Differential’ ie bail out for 1MDB and Jho Low

Bailing out Jho Low’s companies also!!

Significantly, the list also includes an agreement to buy out two Jho Low related companies, which have long been suspiciously associated with Najib’s record of personal plunder from 1MDB.  These are Loh & Loh Corporation Berhad and Putrajaya Perdana Berhad, for which Jho Low and his partners will receive a healthy US$315 million:

Jho Low related companies which funnelled money to Najib are also in the secret bail out package!

Sarawak Report has long since exposed how Jho Low used 1MDB money, which was secretly channeled through a so-called Islamic loan agreement with the company PetroSaudi to ‘buy out’ the Sarawak UBG group in which he and Taib Mahmud held the major stakes.

The purported buyer was Javace Sdn Bhd, a supposed subsidiary of PetroSaudi International, Seychelles (a bogus subsidiary of PetroSaudi, whose Director was Tarek Obaid, also a director of PetroSaudi). However, secret transactions obtained by Sarawak Report showed that all the money in Javace was controlled by a company Panama Investment Manager, which was owned by Jho Low.

The two subsidiaries of UBG Putrajaya Perdana and Loh & Loh are still identified as crony companies controlled by Low and Putrajaya Perdana was identified by investigators as having played a key role in funnelling cash from 1MDB’s subsidiary SRC into Najib’s own personal accounts:

The diagram held up by Attorney General Apandi showing Putrajaya Perdana’s role in passing public money to Najib

Plainly therefore, Najib hopes to use his over-reaching powers at the MOF/PM’s office to launder all his dirty linen through the same simple mega-project, courtesy of secret and politically motivated Chinese cooperation.

Public estimate leaves out the 1MDB costs and commitments?

A huge sum of RM85 million is also put aside in the contract for a ‘nominated company’ to be awarded a “publicity” and “communications” and “strategic consultation” role on the project – no guesses that this will go to a crony outfit.

Finally, also attached to the papers is a totally conflicting set of calculations, which are not listed as being “only for internal consumption” and which appear to represent the public face of the planned deal.  These consist of a broad-brush, ‘back of the envelope’ set of figures, which provide a broad estimate for the project at the fuller figure of RM60 billion.

In this list there is no mention of any of the costs due to be carried for 1MDB!

Public figures? How the same project is being costed at RM60 billion, but with no mention of 1MDB

The agreement is due to be passed by Najib’s compliant cabinet….. about now!

From Sarawak Report:How Jho Low Used 1MDB Cash To Fund Rosmah's Diamond Shopping Sprees

FROM SARAWAK REPORT

• • How Jho Low Used 1MDB Cash To Fund Rosmah's Diamond Shopping Sprees

21 August 2016

 

More recently designerNatasha Mirpuri has taken on the role as ‘buyer’ for Rosmah’s jewellery purchases, however before her it was Jho Low.

Last month’s filing by the US Department of Justice confirmed the money trail, which had long been suggested by Sarawak Report, linking Jho Low’s mysterious role in funding the ‘First Lady’s’ obsessive diamond shopping with money he stole from 1MDB.

Our research in Hong Kong, a favourite jewellery haunt of Rosmah Mansor’s, revealed that by 2009 most of the money to settle Rosmah’s bills was coming via Jho Low.

Insiders from the industry explained to SR that the original ‘link man’ between traders and  Rosmah was the former Malaysian carpet trader Deepak Jaikishan, something that has been extensively exposed and admitted to by Deepak also.

However, in 2009, after Najib became Prime Minister and set about putting together 1MDB, it was Jho Low who started organising such payments, traders say.

He was the man to go to and emails seen by Sarawak Report confirm that he utilised his relationship managers at Coutts Bank Singapore for the purpose, including Yak Yew Chee, who moved on to manage the corrupt 1MDB/Jho Low accounts currently being investigated at the now closed Singapore branch of BSI Bank.

Yak organised transfers for jewellery purchases for Low in 2009

Sarawak Report earlier revealed how Jho Low’s company Batumba Investments Limited Hong Kong, which was a subsidiary of his then main business Wynton Capital, paid millions of dollars to a subsidiary of the New York jeweller Louis Glick called Rose Trading in Hong Kong to pay for Rosmah’s diamonds.

Transfer details of one of the payments sent to the relevant dealers

A related email from Jho Low ran ““Hi….please confirm receiving 1 million in total.. Datin is coming to Hong Kong. Do you want to show her more goods?”.

The transfers were run through Coutts as emails seen by Sarawak Report confirm:

Fwd Payment advice to Rose Trading USD1,000,000
From: Lee Julia (RBS Coutts, SG)
To: jho.low@gmail.com

Dear Mr Low,

Thanks
Julia Lee (attachment)

Speaking to traders again last week Sarawak Report has confirmed that in late 2009 the series of purchases from Rose Trading had amounted to no less than $3 million.  They added that another $1.7 million was paid to another Hong Kong jewellery outlet called  Firestone.

DOJ confirm the 1MDB link

However, it was the DOJ filing last month which tied these purchases directly to money taken from 1MDB via the theft by Jho Low’s company Good Star Limited from the original ‘joint venture’ with the company PetroSaudi.

Amongst a bacchanal of expenditures towards Jho Low’s gambling and partying was listed that telling payment to Rose Trading:

“between October 2009 and October 2010, misappropriated 1MDB funds sent from the Good Star Account into the Shearman IOLA Account were transferred as follows: (i) approximately $12,000,000 in wires to Caesars Palace, a Las Vegas casino; (ii) approximately $13,400,000 in wires to the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the owner of the Venetian Las Vegas, another casino; (iii) a wire for approximately $11,000,000 to “Eric” TAN Kim Loong, an associate of LOW; (iv) approximately $4,000,000 in wires to Jet Logic Ltd., a luxury jet rental service; (v) a wire for approximately $3,500,000 to LOW’s sister; (vi) a wire for approximately $3,080,000 to Rose Trading, a Hong Kong jeweler; (vii) approximately $2,698,000 in wires to Yachtzoo, a luxury yacht rental service; (viii) approximately $2,288,000 in wires to Argent Design Ltd., a United Kingdom-based interior designer; (ix) a wire for approximately $670,000 to Excel Air, a jet rental company; (x) approximately $460,000 in wires to Skyline Private Air, an aircraft rental company; and (xi) a wire for approximately $155,000 to Billiyon Air, a jet rental company. [Section 108 DOJ Report]

From this information we can now join up how the 1MDB ‘investment’ went from Good Star Limited, first to Low’s US lawyer’s client account at Shearman, then eventually to Batumba Investments Limited and then on to Rose Trading.

“He should remember it’s my money too!”

The confirmation that Rosmah’s diamonds were bought using 1MDB cash, follows hard on the heels of ourearlier story that she paid for millions of ringgit of beauty treatments also from public money stolen from the 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, which had been funded from a loan from the public pension fund KWAP.

At the time stories about Jho Low’s gargantuan spending were hitting the news in the US and Malaysia. One confidante of the time has related that Rosmah had exploded on reading some of the coverage:

“He should remember its my money also!”

the First Lady angrily exclaimed.  At the time her listeners were not certain as to what she had meant.  But, now everyone knows!

$600 million yacht for sale – discounts likely

Major re-fit before sale in Hong Kong?

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong press have taken up Sarawak Report’s information that the yacht Equanimity is in the port and on offer for sale.

The South China Morning Post confirms that the boat has had a major re-fit in their docks and that a local agent has been engaged with a view to an apparent sale.

All parties say they have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, but have indicated that the ‘mystery owner’ of the yacht is eager for a quick sale.

Although Jho Low has treated the yacht as his own ever since he acquired it in 2013, hosting a massive party to celebrate his own birthday back in November together with a fundraiser for the UN foundation, Sarawak Report asks if perhaps the actual ownership of the boat is also a little more complex than might first appear?

That the money came from funds stolen from Malaysia can be of little doubt however and the boat ought by rights to be seized and sold by investigators in Hong Kong, who have stated that they are working together with the DOJ and other global agencies who have been working to retrieve 1MDB’s stolen assets on behalf of the Malaysian people.

It’s a job that Malaysia’s own government has been notably failing to undertake itself.

Off the coast in Hong Kong

FROM SARAWAK REPORT:The Link Between 1MDB And The Billion Dollar Nightclub Chain In Vegas

The Heat Is On Hakkasan - We Reveal The Link Between 1MDB And The Billion Dollar Nightclub Chain In Vegas EXCLUSIVE!

• 17 August 2016
 
• 16 comments

Hakkasan nightclub promotional

Sarawak Report has traced crucial evidence linking the Luxembourg bank accounts, which received hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from 1MDB, with the global Hakkasan nightclub and restaurant chain centred in Las Vegas.

Both the bank accounts, held in the name of Vasco Trust, and Hakkasan are owned by the former Aabar Chairman Khadem Al Qubaisi, who is now the subject of civil seizures of his assets by the US Department of Justice, relating to 1MDB thefts, and also a criminal investigation in Switzerland for suspected “fraud, dishonest management, forgery, money laundering, abuse of public trust and the corruption of foreign officials”.

Sarawak Report has now established a direct link between Vasco Trust and the Al Qubaisi-owned Tasameem Real Esate Company LLC, which is the shareholder of Hakkasan, meaning that Hakkasan is not ‘ring-fenced’ from 1MDB, as has been claimed by the managers of Hakkasan.

In fact one of Vasco’s subsidiaries (Vasco Strategic Fund) was even re-named to become an affiliate of Tasameem (Tasameem Strategic Fund) and it has been managed throughout by Khadem’s key bank manager cum company director, the former Edmond de Rothschild Luxembourg Bank CEO, Marc Ambroisien (who was registered as a Director as late as November 2015, according to BVI court documents).

Vasco Strategic Fund (whose Director is Marc Ambroisien) changed name to become part of the Tasameem group of companies, providing a link in the money trail from 1MDB to Hakkasan.

The name switch provides a direct link between the Vasco account, which received all its money from 1MDB in 2012/13 and Tasameem, which by 2016 had registered a $566 million shareholder loan facility to its subsidiary Hakkasan.

Indeed Hakkasan’s 2013 accounts, signed off by Al Qubaisi himself, show that by the end of 2013 the Hakkasan Group had already received $266,000,000 in ‘shareholder loans’ from its parent company, which was cited as Tasameem, which is itself also owned by Al Qubaisi:

By 2016 the amount owed to Shareholder Tasameem had increased to $566 million, according to the accounts

2013 was the year during which the nightclub chain rapidly expanded with its first key acquisitions in Las Vegas, starting with the Omnia nightclub having opened in April.

Records show the case was filed by Marc Ambroisien in November 2015, when he described himself as a Director of Vasco/Tasameem Strategic Fund

How Vasco Strategic Fund SPC (Caymans)  became Tasameem Strategic Fund (BVI)

We revealed ‘KAQ’s’ other life and his love of clubbing

It was Sarawak Report which originally revealed in March last year that over $500 million had been transferred into Khadem Al Qubaisi’s private account, under the name of Vasco Trust, at the Edmond de Rothschild Banque Privee Europe (BPERE) in Luxembourg.

Some of that money was then transferred to the US to buy Al Qubaisi’s Walker Tower penthouse in New York and a Beverley Hills mansion, for which the DOJ have issued a seizure notices.

The Vasco money all came from Jho Low entities, including Good Star Limited and an apparently fictitious character named ‘Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Bandar Alsaud’, which was also used to send money to Najib in KL.

The original payments into the Vasco Trust account, which were all transferred from 1MDB via Aabar’s Falcon Bank and Jho Low companies like Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners

However, most of the money acquired by Vasco came from a bogus BVI company named Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners, which the DOJ indictment last month specifically confirmed received $473 million stolen from the two 1MDB ‘power purchase’ loans raised in 2012, using a ‘guarantee’ provided by Al Qubaisi’s Aabar fund in Abu Dhabi.

The DOJ indictment spells out exactly how the power purchase money was stolen – much of it going to the Vasco Trust account – this is our pictorial representation of the information

The DOJ have explained in detail how $1.367 was misappropriated from the two power purchase loans raised in May and October of 21012 totalling $3.5 billion, during the so-called ‘Aabar-BVI Phase’ of the billion dollar 1MDB scam.

Falcon Bank was this week barred by Singapore from conducting future business, owing to its role over 1MDB

As shown in the diagram, Goldman Sachs, which had raised the money, first sent the lion’s share of the cash directly to 1MDB accounts held at Falcon Bank in Singapore, which was itself a subsidiary of the Aabar sovereign wealth fund of which Khadem Al Qubaisi (KAQ) was Chairman.

KAQ’s deputy Mohammed Al Husseiny was at the time Chairman of Falcon Bank.

Of this money a total of $1.4 billion was transferred on to the now notorious bogus ‘Aabar BVI’ account, which was held at BSI Bank in Lugano. BSI has already also been shut by Singapore.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi IPIC sovereign wealth fund, of which the genuine Aabar is a subsidiary, has confirmed it had no knowledge of the diversion of this cash, which had been paid under the guise of it being a ‘refundable deposit’ for the ‘guarantee’ arranged by Aabar for the loans.

Neil Moffitt, CEO of Hakkasan, has claimed there is no 1MDB money in the group

From this moment on the money was effectively stolen and the theft could not have taken place without the connivance of KAQ and Husseiney, who were in charge of the genuine Aabar as well as being the shareholders and signatories for the bogus Aabar BVI.

The money was then passed mainly to another bogus company, Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners, this time controlled by Jho Low.

Some also went to Najib’s step-son Riza Aziz’s film production company Red Granite.

From Blackstone, it has been established that around one third of the stolen cash was transferred to Al Qubaisi’s Vasco Trust by early 2013.

The Edmond de Rothschild head banker who oversaw the deal

Marc Ambroisien – now fired from de Rothschild and this week at last resigning from KAQ’s private ventures also

The man who smoothed the path for this enormous sum of money was the Edmond de Rothschild CEO, Marc Ambroisien, who told KAQ in a recorded phone call that any other bank “like HSBC” would have frozen and reported such a suspicious series of transfers.

However, he was prepared to fix it and could do so, given his position at the private De Rothschild bank.

One week after Sarawak Report reported the existence of the Vasco Trust account in March 2015, Ambriosien, a former French tax inspector, left his position at the Bank Privee Edmond de Rothschild.

However, for over a year he remained managing ‘KAQ’s’ private ventures.

Ambroisien was fired from Edmond de Rothschild, but stayed on managing KAQ’s companies

Until just days ago Ambroisien was a Director in charge of a web of Vasco related companies, according to company information in France and elsewhere. Various arms of the Trust have controlled different interests for Khadem Al Qubaisi.

Of particular relevance to the Hakkasan empire was a so-called umbrella investment arm called Vasco Strategic Fund SPC, originally incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 2011.

Vasco Strategic Fund was incorporated in 2011

Sarawak Report has obtained back statements relating to KAQ’s Vasco Trust, which include transactions by Vasco Strategic Fund, dating back to its ‘setting up fees’ in February 2011.

KAQ’s Vasco Trust statements include payments relating to Vasco Strategic Fund

The Tasameem Connection

Court documents available from the BVI show that late last year the former Edmond de Rothschild CEO Marc Ambroisien made an application on behalf of a separate company (Ourea S.A.) in his capacity as a Director of Tasameem Strategic Fund.

The document makes clear throughout that Tasameem Strategic Fund BVI was formerly Vasco Strategic Fund in the Cayman Islands.

In November 2015 Marc Ambroisien remained a Director of Tasameem Strategic Fund, linked directly to the trust which received hundreds of millions from 1MDB

While Ambroisien was no longer acting for KAQ’s de Rothschild bank accounts by this date in November 2015, he was still managing many of KAQ’s private interests. He appears to have started resigning from those positions in favour of his boss only in the last few days (see below). Khadem Al Qubaisi, meanwhile remained the Chairman of Hakkasan right up until April of this year.

Ambroisien only resigned from KAQ’s private companies, such as this French property company, a few days ago

Plainly, therefore, Vasco and Tasameem have been linked to the same sources of income and the same management.

Tasameem still owns Hakkasan, according to its public accounts filed in the UK in May this year (which were signed off by the new Board members appointed after Khadem Al Qubaisi resigned April 19th).

‘Ring-fenced’?

Sarawak Report therefore questions claims by Hakkasan that its investments are ‘ring-fenced’ from money stolen from 1MDB and that there is no connection between the entertainment group and its owner (KAQ’s) other financial interests.

Hakkasan’s accounts, which are filed at Companies House in London, state specifically that the owner of the company is Tasameem Real Estate Company, which along with other affiliated companies of the same name belong to Al Qubaisi.

New board member, Senator Norm Coleman –   can he vouch there is no 1MDB cash?

The accounts also specify that much of the investment into the group has come from a $566 million ‘shareholder loan’ provided by Tasameem.

In fact, the expenditures into the Hakkasan group are estimated to have been well over a billion dollars since it began its massive and rapid expansion, beginning with the opening of the Omnia nightclub in Vegas in April 2013.

Since it is now established that a subsidiary of Vasco Trust subsequently became an affiliate of Tasameem, both managed by the former bank manager who managed Khadem Al Qubaisi’s affairs (until he finally resigned a few days ago), it is plain that there are indeed direct links between Hakkasan and Khadem’s 1MDB funded operations, meaning money could have flowed between them.

Troubling timelines

The concerns about Hakkasan’s more than abundant sources of cash are heightened by some troubling timelines.  The Hakkasan brand was bought up by KAQ as a relatively small restaurant concern in London in 2007 for £69 million.

In early 2013 the major expansion into the Vegas nightclub scene began – just a few months after the millions started arriving into the Vasco Trust from 1MDB.

As late as last month the group was still promoting its on-going expansion and also the fact that it is still owned by Tasameem:

The Holmes Report July 2016

Given that Sarawak Report has already established that Khadem Al Qubaisi, together with his brother owns Tasameem Real Estate Company and that he is the sole shareholder of its affiliateTasameem Investment S.A. BVI, there remains the question as to how a salaried fund manager obtained $566 million to invest as a shareholder loan in this nightclub company?

Latest 2015 accounts show the current shareholder loan is $566 million

Sarawak Report believes, therefore, that the global investigators who are examining Mr Quabaisi’s financial affairs ought soon to be turning their interest to Hakkasan’s billion dollar business.

KAQ signed off Hakkasan’s 2013 accounts

FROM SARAWAK REPORT: As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let's Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections

FROM THE SARAWAK REPORT

• 6 August 2016 

Najib has claimed on TV that the US indictment did not involve him nor 1MDB:

“I want to say that what was done by the DOJ recently does not involve me, or the Malaysian government, or 1MDB directly….This is not a criminal suit, but a civil suit… but it has been politicised by certain enemies”. [Najib on Indonesian Metro TV]

Contrast the above with the actual indictment by the DOJ, which in fact refers to criminal actions throughout, although it has instituted civil action to forfeit proceeds of crime in the United States.  For example:

“.. multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB through various means, including by defrauding foreign banks and by sending foreign wire communications in furtherance of the scheme, and thereafter, to launder the proceeds of that criminal conduct, including in and through U.S. financial institutions”.[‘Nature of the Action’ Point 6, DOJ Indictment]

It doesn’t get plainer that that.  From the above you can see that the DOJ indictment implicates public officials in Malaysia (specified as being led by Najib) in criminally and fraudulently stealing billions from 1MDB and then criminally  laundering the money.

The suit does involve Najib.  It does involve 1MDB. It does allege criminal behaviour and major fraud:

“The criminal conduct alleged herein occurred in three principal phases: The “Good Star” Phase… The “Aabar-BVI” Phase …. The “Tanore” Phase…  The proceeds of each of these three phases of criminal conduct were laundered through a complex series of transactions, including through bank accounts in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the United States.” [DOJ indictment]

As for that “Tanore Phase”, the DOJ gets very personal indeed with regard to the Prime Minister (termed ‘Malaysian Official 1′) who we all know admitted over a year ago to receiving US$681 million into his private AmBank account from Tanore Finance Corporation, claiming it had been a ‘donation’ from an anonymous ‘Saudi Royal’ towards his 2013 election campaign.

This is what the DOJ has to say about that money and there is zero reference to any Saudi Royal:

$681 MILLION WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE TANORE ACCOUNT TO AN ACCOUNT BELONGING TO MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1

Shortly after proceeds of the 2013 bond sale were diverted to the Tanore Account, $681,000,000 was sent from the Tanore Account to a bank account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1.

On or about March 21, 2013, Tanore transferred $620,000,000 into an account at AmBank in Malaysia, whose beneficiary was listed as “AMPRIVATE BANKING-MR.” On or about March 25, 2013, an additional $61,000,000 was wired from the Tanore Account to the same account at AmBank, for a total of $681,000,000.

This account belonged to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 and is the same account that in 2011 received $20 million from the PETROSAUDI CO-FOUNDER that was traceable to the Good Star Account, as set forth in Section II.G. It is also the same account that in 2012 received at least $30 million from the Blackstone Account that was traceable to the Aabar-BVI Swiss Account and the 2012 bond proceeds, as set forth in Section III.E.3. [Section 259-61 of DOJ indictment]

So, when Najib appears on TV and says he has not been implicated in the DOJ report and that nothing criminal has been alleged, who can believe him?

Najib’s ‘Pirate Government’

Unfortunately, this pampered son of a former Prime Minister has got away with far too much for far too long and he seems to think he can treat this as merely another skirmish, whether anyone believes him or not.

He has boasted of his ‘proud pirate (Bugis) ancestry’ and those around Malaysia’s ‘First Couple’ privately confide they have nicknamed them Bonnie & Clyde.  Najib should probably be dubbed ‘The Cover-up Kid’ given his list of scandals, all “fixed” by tame officials and judges – more of which shortly .

Yet, all gangster stories end in flames and with the DOJ findings it is plain to most players now that this particular pair have reached their last shoot out. Pumped up with adrenalin (and hormones too) the question is whether they themselves have yet absorbed the realities of their situation?

The couple have told their teamsters that they can still brazen this out and come out stronger, emergency legislation now to hand. Rosmah is on the phone all day long, report insiders, calling all their ministers to step out and speak up in support.  The few who have done so either have no political future or plainly don’t care if they once did.

“Mrs 10%” – What western bankers dubbed Rosmah!

1MDB is just the latest episode in a political career that should rightly have ended long before Najib Razak got anywhere near the top job.  He was already tarnished for all to see.

For years Najib was a notorious Minister of Defence, for which western governments and arms sales must take their share of blame. It was, as always, the Malaysian people who paid the price for pumped-up prices – Rosmah was never far away and never accepted a commission of less than 10%, insiders say.

For example, one senior French banker from a major Asian division reminisces how in 2009 in the Presidential Suite at the 5 Star Plaza Athene Hotel in Paris he witnessed procedures at the close of one such major deal.

  “Najib moved rooms so that the ‘commission’ could be dealt with and he observed a large suitcase stuffed with millions of dollars being offered to  Malaysia’s Defence Minister“, says a source.  “In turn, Najib waived to staff to take it to another nearby room …… where Rosmah was waiting. Within minutes, she was out of the place, police escort in tow, sirens wailing, to the diamond shops of the Faubourg St Honore“.

No wonder Najib acts bewildered to find how times have changed.  “These things are done more quietly” he complained of the US action last week.

Even the French have named him in separate legal action as the suspected recipient of kickbacks over the  Scorpene submarine scandal. 

 Najib has told Malaysians, of course, that he has not been named, but look at how it was reported in the French press:

“The ex-president of a subsidiary of Thales, is suspected of having corrupted the present Prime Minister of Malaysia.  Bernard Bioco, 72, ex-president of Thales Int Asia was put under criminal investigation on 15th sept 2014 concerning bribery of foreign public officials namely Najib Razak, the then Minister of Defence and one of his advisers Abdul Razak Baginda” [Le Point and other newspapers]

Suspected of bribing Najib over Scorpene… French court investigation

Attached to this murky submarine story is the well-known shocking murder of the translator on the deal, Altantuya Shaariibuu (who had threatened to reveal information on those very kickbacks).

Najib was comprehensively demonstrated over the subsequent court proceeding as having been up to his eyes in a legal cover-up, revelations that ought to have ended the career of any politician.

Instead the blame has been put on the shoulders of two of his own bodyguards, who were instructed to kill Altantuya by someone still anonymous and who languish in jail facing sentence of death.

Too many followers – Najib lied about his role in Anwar’s conviction

Anwar

But, there is another more current and pressing scandal that Malaysians should no longer continue to tolerate now their Prime Minister has been demonstrated so comprehensively to be a major thief and liar.  That, of course, is the continued incarceration of Malaysia’s opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in a case that was cooked up by Najib from beginning to end.

The evidence is overwhelming that Malaysia’s present Prime Minister was up to his neck in the conspiracy to accuse the man who most threatened him politically of a crime designed to lose him the greatest possible political support.

And Najib has been caught out lying over and again over this involvement.

For this reason alone the plainly politically motivated prosecution ought to have been thrown out of court…. and indeed so it was. After a vicious and protracted trial Anwar was resoundingly acquitted in the High Court.

However, Najib was not prepared to accept an acquittal of his political enemy, particularly since Anwar had just won the majority of votes at the General Election. 

 The PM ordered an Appeal against that acquittal and then he ordered a conviction – the hand-picked judiciary at the top of Malaysia’s eroded judicial system complied with this irregular request, a sad indicator of the country’s institutional decline.

Najib changed his story, not once but twice

Consider how disgraceful the main facts of this case are, from the evidence in court.

Months and years of dragged out legal wrangling have conveniently blurred memories and confused foreign observers of the case, for Najib.

 However, it has been firmly established that Najib himself met the ‘victim’ at his house shortly before the complaint of sodomy was filed in June 2008, just after Anwar had caused shock waves with a landslide towards the opposition in the March election.

At first the Prime Minister lied and said he had not ever met the young worker from Anwar’s office.  But, when a photograph appeared showing the man inside Najib’s home he changed his story and explained that Mohd Saiful had pitched up three months earlier to talk about student grants (as one does with the then deputy Prime Minister).

In fact Saiful was already a student drop-out, although he had been active in BN while at college before applying to join Anwar’s team just before the March election.

It was only after Saiful admitted under court questioning that he had discussed the issue of   alleged sodomy with Najib in his house in June, just a two days before the alleged incident, that the DPM changed his story for a third time and admitted that he had indeed discussed the matter with Saiful and that yes, the lawyer and later prosecutor on the case Shafee Abdullah was also in the house at the time.

Najib acknowledged in this third version of events that he had advised Saiful to go and lodge a police report.

Saiful also admitted under further questioning that the day before the alleged incident he had also held a secret meeting with a police chief in the Concord Hotel in KL. Assistant Commissioner Rodwan Mohd Yusof had a long grudge against Anwar, who accused him of framing him during his previous arrest and imprisonment.  Again the case was not thrown out.

Even so, it was two days after his visit to Anwar’s house and the alleged incident took place that Saiful took himself first to a private clinic to complain of sodomy.  The doctor could find no evidence of interference, but when Saiful complained there had been crime involved the doctor sent him for full examination at a public hospital.

The doctors at the public hospital could find no evidence of any interference either, as would have been expected, but since Saiful claimed he had not washed or defecated in the two days since the alleged incident they took sample to check for DNA.

There was great mystery and confusion over what happened next as delay in the arrival and analysis of these samples appears to have occurred, according to Australian barrister Mark Trowell who has written about what he describes as a travesty of a legal case.  The prosecution refused to provide details about how they acquired and processed their ‘evidence’.

The entire case was conducted against a backdrop of politicking and further accusations of a sexual nature against Anwar by BN, this time allegedly involving a female prostitute and a video without a properly identifiable face.

Unsurprisingly, after months of this nonsense the High Court Judge through out the prosecution and acquitted Anwar.  In any normal country that would have been the end of the matter, as the process of appeal is reserved for the defendant and not the prosecutor, who has failed to prove his case to the judge and jury (sadly the latter institution was abolished in Malaysia).

But, in Malaysia no. Najib was by this time Prime Minister and he drove through an appeal by the prosecution to the higher courts, where BN have control over top appointments. Over the next two years and in the aftermath of a triumphant 2013 election result by Anwar Najib got the judges of the Federal Court to present the judgement he was after – a guilty verdict that would force his foe from politics.

That night a sick and sickened pilot drove his plane out over the Indian Ocean and ditched it in – Najib should take his share of the blame for that as well.

Are Malaysians to sit an tolerate a situation where a disgraced thief and liar has succeeded in driving the opposition leader into jail in a case he masterminded himself from start to finish? 

 To be even more sure of controlling the case, the self-same Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s close legal associate, who attended that first meeting with the ‘victim to be’ in Najib’s house, unaccountably replaced the normal prosecution barristers on the case as a private prosecutor hired by the government during the final appeal hearings.

Najib has worked to exploit the leaderless situation confronting the opposition ever since and BN/UMNO smugly talk of divisions faced by the party they deliberately decapitated. He has gone on to “woo” the PAS Islamic party away from the opposition coalition in the normal way he woos – RM90 million is widely reckoned to have flowed into the top echelons of PAS in recent months (BN veterans would tell them they came cheap).

To sugar matters further for PAS, Najib has gone on a crusade to show himself ‘more holy than thou’ on every PAS religious agenda, stirring up extremism in Malaysia and undermining civil law and institutions, without turning a single hair over the destabilising, divisive and dangerous consequences to his country and his own party.

He thinks it’s clever. If a man has no charisma to attract his followers he buys them, whatever it takes.

Najib’s next target it the other powerful centre of political opposition, which is the well-run DAP party, which enjoys a strong support for its reputation for integrity.  The Prime Minister has adopted his preferred technique of legal persecution, abusing all his powers to accuse DAP’s leader of the crime with which he himself is most associated, corruption.

Malaysia now faces the spectacle of their own most corrupted world leader, caught out stealing billions, going after a state leader over paltry and flimsy accusations of an alleged cheap deal to buy his modest house.

With Guan Eng in jail alongside Anwar, PAS on the pay-roll, all his critics sacked and his emergency powers in place, Najib plainly reckons he can pull off another “election win”.

Can Malaysians tolerate more of this and more graft and squander by his pumped up, hormone abusing wife?

No wonder Najib’s own family, his former patron Dr Mahathir and so many others from his own BN party (none saints themselves) have fallen away in shock and disgust from this man supposedly ‘born to lead’. They know him best.

Malaysians should team up to reject Najib.  Next they can fight for reform.

- THE SARAWAK REPORT