by David J Lynch in Washington
Financial Times
18th Sept. 2017

A federal judge in Los Angeles has granted a US government request to delay its attempt to seize assets allegedly purchased with funds stolen from the 1MDB Malaysian state investment fund while a criminal investigation proceeds.

The ruling came one day after President Donald Trump proclaimed it “a great honour” to welcome to the White House the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is linked to the investigation but denies any wrongdoing.

The US Department of Justice has been pursuing the alleged misappropriation of $4.5bn from the 1MDB fund along two paths.  Read the rest of this entry »

Never before has a Prime Minister of Malaysia invested so much on publicity and propaganda (not to mention funds) for his visit to the United States to visit the White House and meet with US President Trump in Washington Tuesday or several hours from now.

On his departure for the US on Sept. 10, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak wrote a special article in his blog entitled “Malaysia’s Record of Democracy and Free Speech is Strong” extolling his own democratic virtues and commitments and human rights record, which are quite dismal indeed.

But this was not enough. On Sept. 11, the Prime Minister’s Office ensured that Najib’s special message appeared in the top American political website, the Hill, entitled: “Malaysian prime minister: Trump, we have your back in fighting ISIS”.

But all these PR exercises to generate positive vibes for Najib’s visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump were drowned in an ocean of bad press, not only in the United States but in the world as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I suggested that Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Dzulkifli Ahmad should accompany the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the latter’s trip of Washington so that Dzulkifli can meet his counterparts in the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to ascertain the basis and latest status of US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal as well as to learn the FBI investigation techniques which had enabled FBI to amass a mountain of evidence about criminal aspects of 1MDB scandal but which is beyond the present investigatory capabilities and prowess of MACC.

However, Najib’s delegation to the United States would be incomplete without the participation of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali himself, especially as Malaysia had been tarred with the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy precisely because of the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic litigation in US history to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets around the world, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Apandi should meet with US Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ascertain what evidence the US Government has to pursue the 1MDB case against 1MDB conspirators including “MO1”.
Read the rest of this entry »

By The Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal
Sept. 6, 2017

Did Tillerson tell his boss he’s repeating an Obama mistake?

A visit to the White House is a diplomatic plum that world leaders covet. So why is President Trump bestowing this honor on Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who jailed an opposition leader and is a suspect in a corruption scandal that spans the globe?

Mr. Najib will visit the White House next week for a presidential photo-op that could help him win the next general election and imperil Malaysia’s democracy. Yet it isn’t clear that Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are getting anything in return for associating with a leader their own Justice Department is investigating. This could set them up for a repeat of the way Mr. Najib humiliated Barack Obama. Read the rest of this entry »

I do not think the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should accept the invitation to visit the White House and meet with US President Trump next Tuesday, as it would put him in an inferior position as if a supplicant after being branded as a kleptocrat and “MO1” by the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic litigation in US history and had done nothing since the DOJ action in July last year to clear or cleanse the Malaysian government of implication in the 1MDB scandal or challenge the appellation of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”.

But if the Prime Minister insists on visiting Washington and meeting Trump as scheduled, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad should accompany Najib to Washington to meet with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) head so that he could report back to Malaysians on the basis and status of the US DOJ’s kleptocratic investigations into the 1MDB scandal. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, the international press reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigator conducting criminal investigation into 1MDB-linked funds is encountering problems as several possible witnesses are too scared to speak out.

US media network Bloomberg reported that some people in “certain foreign countries” already assisting the criminal probe, are concerned for their safety, while others say it’s too dangerous to co-operate, FBI said in a Federal Court filing in Los Angeles yesterday.

The report said FBI has requested to keep the names of its informants secret from the alleged masterminds of the 1MDB conspiracy.

Individuals who were otherwise willing to provide information said they were worried about putting “the safety and security of both themselves and their families at serious risk,” FBI said in its filing.

FBI also cited Malaysian news reports, where local officials arrested due to their role in probing the 1MDB embezzlement and the driver of former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, who was shot at his house in Ampang Perdana late last month. Read the rest of this entry »

By Edvard Pettersson
Bloomberg
September 6, 2017

Possible witnesses to the alleged looting of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Bhd are too scared to talk to U.S. investigators because they fear retaliation, according the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Some people in “certain foreign countries” already assisting the criminal probe are concerned for their safety, while others say it’s too dangerous to cooperate, according to an FBI request to keep the names of its informants secret from the alleged masterminds of the 1MDB conspiracy.

Individuals who would otherwise be willing to provide information have told the government they’re worried about putting “the safety and security of both themselves and their families at serious risk,” the FBI said Tuesday in a federal court filing in Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »

Next week, a new drama will be enacted on the world stage – “MO1” visits the White House and meets US President Trump.

Will it be a national honour or a national shame for Malaysia?

In fact, the Najib-Trump meeting at the White House next Tuesday on Sept. 12 has sparked two questions:

First, is it right for Trump to invite Najib to visit him in White House?

Second, is it proper for Najib to accept Trump’s invitation to visit the White House to meet Trump?

The first question would have to be posed and answered by American political leaders and opinion makers.

Already there is an opinion piece in Washington Post yesterday entitled “Trump’s hosting of Malaysia’s prime minister marks another setback for the rule of law”, pointing to the “striking”: similarities between the two leaders – with both of them “wrapped up in major investigations that involve the US Justice Department”. Read the rest of this entry »

Malaysians should not be surprised that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low yesterday expressed sympathy with US President Donald Trump with regard to the proliferation of “fake news” on the social media in the US, giving another example to the saying “Birds of the same feather flock together”.

This is because the maker of the biggest fake news in Malaysia is none other than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, himself – in his pretence in the last two years that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal does not exist and a sheer figment of the imagination.

The former Cabinet Minister and current UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, want Malaysians to believe that the Bank Negara’s forex loses a quarter of a century ago were real while 1MDB losses are only on paper.

I am still waiting for Annuar’s response whether 1MDB’s payment of some US$350 million to IPIC a day before the August 31 deadline was “just only on paper” and another one of the fake transactions by 1MDB.
Read the rest of this entry »

OPEN LETTER by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang to all Cabinet Ministers from DAP Parliamentary Office on Monday, 28th August 2017:

Dear Cabinet Ministers,
28th August 2017.

Dear Ministers,

I am issuing this Open Letter to all you Cabinet Ministers to urge the Cabinet to take a patriotic stand at your meeting on Wednesday, the Eve of 60th National Day, to veto Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from visiting White House to meet US President Trump on Sept. 12 as the US Government had virtually branded the Malaysian Prime Minister as kleptocrat by being “MO1”.

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists may think that the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump on Sept. 12 is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

This is not the case. In fact, it is the very opposite. Read the rest of this entry »

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad has been in the eye of the storm in the last three days since issuing a very public ultimatum to the Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, that he will face civil or criminal action if he refuses to make an open apology within 48 hours for his comments on the detention of Penang State Exco member Phee Boon Poh.

This is the first time in the 60-year Malaysian history where the head of a national agency had issued a public ultimatum to a Chief Minister, Mentri Besar or a Cabinet Minister that he should apologise within 48 or face civil or criminal action.

Clearly, Dzulkifli wants to act as prosecutor, jury and judge all at the same time.

If Dzulkifili’s unprecedented action is to mark the MACC’s coming-of-age to become an anti-corruption agency without fear or favour, like its counterpart in Hong Kong and Singapore operating in an environment where even Presidents and Prime Ministers can be impeached, prosecuted or toppled for corruption like in South Korea or Pakistan, it would be a welcome development.

But apparently, it is not so.

In actual fact, Dzulkifli’s public ultimatum to Guan Eng casts doubt on the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the MACC, as it raises the question whether the MACC is hand-in-glove with the Prime Minister or the top government leadership to persecute or discriminate against the Pakatan Harapan opposition while trying to give the impression of independence of action to fight corruption so long as it does not touch the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal or Malaysia’s new-found infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

I advise Dzukifli to learn from Rahim Noor’s lesson and not to fall victim to hubris or “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” complex. Read the rest of this entry »

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists think that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump on Sept. 12 is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

I do not agree.

Najib’s scheduled visit to the White House and meeting with US President Trump has already given rise to questions such as “MO1 vs US01”, “Will Najib triumph over Trump” and “Will Trump trumph Najib?’

I think it is a great national shame for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when he has not cleared himself of the American Government “indictment “ as a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of over US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets

Najib’s visit to the White House and meeting with Trump will deepen and aggravate Malaysia’s international infamy and ignominy by showing that the Malaysian government and leadership have ceased to know the meaning of “shame”, as honest and rational Malaysians – or anyone in the world – will regard it as a great national shame and dishonour for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when Najib has not cleared himself of the US Government’s civil suit “indictment” of a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US DOJ’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets.

Najib should only visit the White House with honour, pride and rectitude as Prime Minister of Malaysia when he had cleared or cleansed himself of the infamy and ignominy of a “kleptocrat” and “MO1”. Read the rest of this entry »

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists think that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump next month is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

I do not agree. I think it will deepen and aggravate Malaysia’s international infamy and ignominy by showing that Malaysia’s government and leadership have ceased to know the meaning of “shame”, as honest and rational Malaysians – or anyone in the world – will regard it as a great national shame and dishonour for Najib to go to the White House as Malaysian Prime Minister to meet President Trump when he has not cleared himself of the indictment of a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets.

Najib should only visit the White House with honour, pride and rectitude as Prime Minister of Malaysia when he had cleared or cleansed himself of the infamy and ignominy of a “kleptocrat” and “MO1”.

I shudder to think of the shame and dishonour of a Malaysian Prime Minister visiting the White House with the indictment of a kleptocrat and “MO1” hanging over his head, which placed Najib in the inferior and dishonourable position as a supplicant.

Is President Trump going to apologise to Najib for the US DOJ kleptocratic suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets and indicting him as a kleptocrat and “MO1”, or even going to the extent of informing Najib that the US DOJ was withdrawing the kleptocratic suit and all criminal investigations into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal? Read the rest of this entry »

Is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Director of Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan regretting having admitted at the BBC interview last September that “MO1” is Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and that only an idiot does not know that “MO1” is Najib?

I am sure all the other Cabinet Ministers, who have virtually been condemned as “idiots” by Abdul Rahman, are gleefully condemning the BN Strategic Communications Director as a real idiot for having made such an admission, now that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Los Angeles court to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against 1MDB-linked assets to allow criminal investigations into the 1MDB scandal to proceed without any hampering.

In the DOJ‘s court filings to stay its civil forfeiture suits on 1MDB-linked assets, there is no mention of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1), his spouse, or any transfers or gifts made to them.

The BN Strategic Communications Media team under Abdul Rahman immediately pounced on this yesterday and was the first to come out with a response, virtually claiming that the DOJ’s action to stay its civil forfeiture lawsuits to permit criminal investigations to continue unhampered was virtually a victory for the Malaysian government on the baseless ground that the DOJ’s latest action was tantamount to admission that its earlier 250-page civil forfeiture suits were baseless and groundless.

I do not know how the BN Strategic Communication team under Abdul Rahman could come to such a ridiculous conclusion, as the DOJ’s announcement has in fact brought DOJ investigations into the 1MDB scandal to a more serious level, requiring the putting on hold of the DOJ’s civil forfeiture actions so as not to hamper the DOJ’s criminal investigations. Read the rest of this entry »