UMNO Ministers and leaders have been trying to exploit the four-day visit of King Salman of Saudi Arabia to Malaysia as proof that there was nothing hanky-panky about the RM2.6 billion in the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal banking account in 2013, and even claiming that Salman’s silence could only mean confirmation that the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account had come from Saudi Arab royal circles.
These claims are of course nonsensical and preposterous, and as I said in Johor Baru four days ago, the most significant thing about King Salman’s visit to Malaysia was not what was said or done by the Saudis, including the signing of the US$7 billion (RM31 billion) agreement by Saudi Aramco to take a 50 per cent stake in Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang but what was not said about the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal bank accounts.
I am not surprised that an UMNO leader said that this was my most “dungu” (idiotic) remark to date, for what intellectual capability can one expect from the UMNO leadership when an UMNO Minister could tell ten lies in a short five-paragraph statement while the UMNO Information leader could tell more than eight lies in another short statement, and both of them dared not accept my challenge to a joint media conference for me to point out their lies one by one?
UMNO leaders who claim the Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s visit to Malaysia is a sort of vindication of Najib’s innocence in the RM2.6 billion donation scandal have too low an opinion of both King Salman and the Malaysian public.
There is no way that Salman is unaware of Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation and RM52 billion 1MDB scandal is Najib’s greatest Achilles’ heel. Just google-search “1MDB” and you will get 3.7 million results in 2.8 seconds.
The reason why Salman could not say RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account was his donation is very simple – the Saudi Arabian king knows that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal suit to confiscate US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets, is a public document in black and white, and it had traced in detail the “to and fro” “money trail” of the so-called RM2.6 billion “donation”, establishing beyond a shadow of doubt that they could not be a donation from Saudi Arabian royal circles.
For instance, in Page 6 – 8 and Paragraphs 8 – 11 of the 126-page 512-Paragraph US DOJ kleptocratic suits for the seizure of US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, outlined the three “phases” of the “criminal conduct” of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering, viz:
“8. The “Good Star” phase – fraudulent diversion of funds from 1MDB began approximately Sept. 2009, soon after 1MDB’S creation. Between 2009 and 2011, under the pretence of investing in a joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International (“Petrosaudi” or “PSI”) a private Saudi oil extraction company, officials of 1MDB and others arranged for a fraudulent transfer of more than $1 billion from 1MDB to a Swiss bank account in the name of Good Star Limited.
“9. The “Aabar-BVI” Phase: In 2012, 1MDB officials and others misappropriated and fraudulently diverted a substantial portion of the proceeds that 1MDB raised through two separate bond offerings arranged and underwritten by Goldman Sachs International “Goldman”. …….Beginning almost immediately after 1MDB received the proceeds of each of these two bond issues, 1MDB officials caused a substantial portion of the proceeds – approximately $1.367 billion, a sum equivalent to more than forty per cent of the total net proceeds raised – to be wired transferred to a Swiss bank account belonging to a British Virgin Islands entity called Aabar Investments PJS Limited (“Aabar-BVI”).
“11. The “Tanore” phase: In 2013, several individuals, including 1MDB officials, diverted more than $1.26 billion out of a total of $3 billion in principal that 1MDB raised through a third bond offering arranged by Goldman in March 2013…….However beginning days after the bond sale, a significant portion of the proceeds was instead diverted to a bank account in Singapore held by Tanore Finance Corporation (“Tanore Account”) for which TAN (Eric Tan Kim Loong) was the recorded beneficial owner. Although the Tanore Account had no legitimate connection to 1MDB……..1MDB funds transferred into the Tanore Account were used for the personal benefit of LOW (JHO LOW) and his associates, including officials of 1MDB, rather than for the benefit of 1MDB or ADMIC (Abu Dhabi Malaysian Investment Fund Company).”
Even more interesting is when we come to page 67 of the DOJ lawsuit on “IV. THE TANORE PHASE: MORE THAN $1.26 BILLION IS MISAPPRORIATED FROM 1MDB”, in “A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE TANORE PHASE”, as follows:
“229. Funds transferred to the Tanore Account were distributed for the benefit of at least one public official associated with 1MDB. More particularly, very shortly after the bond offering closed, between approximately March 21, 2013 and March 25, 2013, $681,000,000 was transferred from the Tanore account to an account belonging to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1. Of this amount, approximately $620 million was returned to the Tanore Account on or about August 26, 2013.
“230. 1MDB funds diverted to the Tanore Account were also used by LOW and TAN to purchase artwork for their personal benefit and to purchase an interest in the Park Lane Hotel for the personal benefit of LOW. The disposition of these funds was not consistent with the intended use of the 2013 bond proceeds nor was it made for the benefit of 1MDB or ADMIC.”
Then we come to page 75 of the DOJ lawsuit on “D. $681 MILLION WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE TANORE ACCOUNT TO AN ACCOUNT BELONGING TO MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”, providing the following details:
“259.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.
“260. On or about March 21, 2013, Tanore transferred $620,000,000 into an account in 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.
“261. 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.
“262. On or about August 26, 2013, $620,010,715 was wired from a different account at AmBank to the Tanore Account. This AmBank account also belonged to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1, and the transfer represented funds from $681 million payments that were being returned to Tanore.”
The ensuing two paragraphs are even more interesting, viz:
“ 263. The Attorney-General of Malaysia publicly stated that he conducted an inquiry into the $681 million in payments. In a press release issued on January 26, 2016, the Malaysian Attorney-General confirmed that, “the sum of USD681 was transferred into the personal account of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 between 22.3.2013 and 10.04.2013,” and that, “in August 2013, a sum of USD620 million was returned by MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1…” The Malaysian Attorney-General ultimately characterized the payment of $681 million as a “personal donation to MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 from the Saudi royal family which was given to him without consideration.”
“264. Bank records associated with Tanore Account show that TAN was the beneficial owner of the Tanore account, from which the $681,000,000 payments to the account of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 were made, and that 1MDB OFFICER 3 was added as an authorized signor of the Tanore Account roughly one day before the first wire of $620,000,000 was sent from the Tanore Account to the account of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1.”
“1MBD OFFICER 3” described in the DOJ lawsuit as “a Malaysian national who served as 1MDB’s general counsel and executive director of group strategy during at a minimum, 2012 and 2013” has been identified as Jasmine Loo – like Jho Low, another international fugitive from justice for kleptocracy.
Nothing could be clearer, in black and white!
The US DOJ had called the bluff in Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohd Apandi Ali’s claim that the US$681 million in Najib’s personal banking accounts were “donation from Saudi royal family given without consideration”, as the DOJ had traced in detail the money trail of the RM2.6 billion ringgit “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts in AmBank in Kuala Lumpur, from the orignating accounts from where US$681 million in Najib’s accounts came from and to where the US$621 million was returned to.
The US$681 million came from Tanore Account in March 2013 and USD620 million was transferred back to Tanore Account in August 2013, which had nothing whatsoever with any Saudi Arab royalty.
As pointed out in Paragraph 248 (page 73) of the DOJ suit, the Tanore Account in Singapore was opened by TAN (ERIC Tan Kim Loong) on or about November 2, 2012 and TAN was originally its sole authorized signatory.
Tanore is one of the multitude of shell companies which Jho Low used for his “heist of the century” in his international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal.
Where has the USD620 million which Najib’s account in Ambank in Kuala Lumpur had returned to the Tanore Account in August 2013 gone to, as it is as clear as crystal that the money had not gone back to any Saudi Arab royalty as it had never originated from Saudi Arabia in the first place.
Would King Salman be so stupid as to admit that he had donated US$681 million to Najib, who had returned US$620 million to him, when all these are totally fictitious accounts to hide the money trail of the original sum of US$681 and the subsequent transfer to Tanore Account of US$620 million?
No one really believes that King Salman of Saudi Arabia is so stupid as to take the rap for the multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal on behalf of Najib when there is no evidence that the Saudi royal family was any way involved in the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal.
More than seven months have passed since the US DOJ lawsuit tracing the money-trail of the 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal, including the so-called “donation” to Najib’s personal banking accounts, but neither Najib nor Apandi had been able to challenge the veracity of the DOJ accounts of 1MDB money trails.
Najib and Apandi cannot continue to run and hide – for there is no place in the whole wide world for them to run and hide. Their only option is to tell truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the 1MDB global kleptocratic scandal.
(Speech at the Malam Semarak Kasih Bersama Solidarity Wira Mazlan Aliman organised by Parti Amanah at Bangi, Selangor on Saturday, 4th February 2017 at 10.30 pm)