I am most shocked that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said after the UMNO Supreme Council meeting this evening that 1MDB is not directly involved in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) report, which is probably a a justification for no government or official response to the DOJ legal suits for forfeiture of over US$1 billion assets in United States which the American authorities alleged had been stolen, misappropriated, defrauded or diverted from 1MDB as a result of global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption crimes.
Najib said the DPJ civil suits did not contain any information or views from the Malaysian government, Attorney-General’s Chambers or 1MDB itself. He added that “only those specifically named in the report are mentioned in the report” and that 1MDB is not directly involved in the report. Najib cannot be more wrong.
Najib should not take Malaysians for fools or simpletons in declaring that 1MDB is not directly involved in DOJ law suits as without 1MDB there would be no DOJ legal action for forfeiture of over US$1 billion MDB-linked assets in United States.
In fact, without 1MDB, the DOJ 136-page legal suits would have no legs to stand on and would immediately collapse.
“1MDB” is strewn all over the 136-page report, and in the first 20 pages, there are over 130 references.
How then can Najib say that 1MDB is not directly involved in the DOJ report?
Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has not been named personally in the DOJ legal suits, it is no exaggeration to say that the identity of “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” mentioned 36 times in the 136-page DOJ report has received remarkable concurrence whether locally or internationally – that it could only refer to Najib and nobody else.
Let me ask Najib a question I had posed in Batu Pahat last night – whether Najib will deny he is “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” or will he admit he is being referred to in DOJ legal suits and sue the US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch for defamation for implying or insinuating that he was involved in the global multi-billion ringgit theft, embezzlement, misappropriation or money-laundering of 1MDB funds?
The United States Attorney-General Loretta E. Lynch, said at her press conference on July 20 that the 1MDB was “intended to grow the Malaysian economy and support the Malaysian people. Instead, they were stolen, laundered through American financial institutions and used to enrich a few officials and their associates. Corrupt officials around the world should make no mistake that we will be relentless in our efforts to deny them the proceeds of their crimes.”
Anyone who has read the 136-page DOJ legal suits would be shocked by the breadth of the alleged embezzlement, corruption and money laundering related to the 1MDB funds, and the “massive, brazen and blatant diversion of billions of dollars to be laundered through U.S. financial institutions”.
As “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” is described as a king-pin of the multi-billion ringgit 1MDB global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption, will Najib therefore institute legal proceedings against the US Attorney-General for defamation?
(Speech at the Stulang DAP Solidarity Dinner held in Johor Baru on Friday, 29th July 2016 at 10 pm)