Anita Gabriel
Business Times, Singapore
May 31, 2017

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore ended its “most extensive” ever two-year check on banks involved in the illicit fund flows of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) with two more banks getting the rap, bringing the total number of banks here to eight that have been stung in various degrees by the Malaysian scandal.

The last two banks, Credit Suisse and United Overseas Bank (UOB), were fined S$700,000 and S$900,000 for seven and nine breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) rules, respectively, with MAS noting however that none had “pervasive” control weaknesses.

Their fines are also the lowest among the banks that were earlier hit with financial penalties that ranged between S$1 million (DBS Bank) and S$13.3 million (BSI Bank) as a result of MAS’ scrutiny into 1MDB-related money flows within the financial system here that has led to unprecedented actions against errant institutions and individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

Yasmine Yahya
Straits Times
MAY 30, 2017

SINGAPORE – Regulators have wrapped up a two-year review of banks involved in 1MDB-related transactions known to-date but the after-effects of this probe will likely reverberate through the financial industry for many years to come.

As the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) itself noted in a statement on Tuesday (May 30), the review is the most extensive it has ever taken.

The investigation was a deep dive into all the transactions that have flown through Singapore and were related to Malaysian fund 1MDB, which is under investigation in at least six countries over billions of dollars of suspected misappropriations.

It led to the shutting down of two banks, BSI Bank and Falcon Bank and financial penalties totalling $29.1 million being imposed on eight banks – BSI, Falcon, DBS, UBS, Standard Chartered Bank, Coutts, Credit Suisse and United Overseas Bank. Read the rest of this entry »

by Andrea Tan
Bloomberg
May 24, 2017

Kelvin Ang Wee Keng was fined S$9,000 ($6,477) after he admitted that he made a corrupt payment to an analyst in a Singapore case related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd investigations.

Ang, 35, was a broker with Kim Eng Securities Pte until 2015 and made about S$100,000 annually in commissions, prosecutor Vincent Ong said in a Singapore State Court on Wednesday. He was charged a year ago for what authorities said was corruptly giving S$3,000 to a research analyst to speed up the preparation of a favorable valuation report. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chief Commissioner of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad, who launched the “Anti-Corruption Revolution Movement” (GERAH) two days ago, has said in an exclusive interview that the MACC had set a three-year deadline for Malaysia to move high up the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

The question that immediately comes to mind is whether the MACC does not expect any improvement in the TI CPI until three years later in the 2020 TI CPI? Read the rest of this entry »

Trinna Leong
Straits Times
10th May 2017

Minister and 1MDB president are said to be no longer in charge of key projects linked to state fund

The fallout continues over the aborted Bandar Malaysia property development deal, as reports emerged yesterday that key personnel tasked with negotiating the multibillion-dollar project have been relieved of their duties.

Malaysia’s Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani and troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) president Arul Kanda Kandasamy were part of the so-called Budiman committee, a government unit set up to manage restructuring and divestment of 1MDB assets. The Malaysian Insight (TMI) reported that both men and the committee are no longer spearheading 1MDB-linked prime developments in Kuala Lumpur, namely Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia.

The news comes after the government’s sudden decision last Wednesday to abort a RM7.41 billion (S$2.4 billion) deal inked in 2015 to jointly develop Bandar Malaysia, the country’s biggest property project on the fringes of Kuala Lumpur, with private conglomerate Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC). Read the rest of this entry »

Jeevan Vasagar in Singapore
Financial Times
7th May 2017

Property failure and Abu Dhabi deal leave taxpayer on the hook, says MP

In an ebullient New Year’s message, Najib Razak declared that 1MDB’s “major challenges” were behind it. But critics of the Malaysian prime minister have seized on two apparent reversals as evidence that efforts to clear the scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund’s debts are in disarray.

A crucial part of Mr Najib’s claim was a $1.7bn deal to sell a stake in a Kuala Lumpur property project to a China-backed consortium. That deal has now collapsed, with questions raised about China’s role in vetoing the agreement.

Meanwhile, 1MDB made an agreement earlier this month to pay Ipic, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, $1.2bn to settle an embarrassing dispute in which Ipic was claiming about $6.5bn.

The Malaysian fund is at the centre of multiple global investigations into alleged grand corruption. Swiss investigators allege that up to $4.8bn was diverted from companies linked to 1MDB,which was set up by the Malaysian premier.

“With the latest collapse of the proposed [property project] sale, the entire ‘rationalisation’ exercise . . . hailed by the prime minister and cabinet has been completely unravelled,” said Tony Pua, an MP with the Democratic Action party, Malaysia’s main opposition group. Read the rest of this entry »

Shannon Teoh
Straits Times
8th May 2017

The chief of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Mr Arul Kanda, was last Tuesday personally overseeing the dry run for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s site visit the next day to the Bandar Malaysia development.

Over a year ago, Mr Arul brokered the deal to sell 60 per cent of the upcoming township by 1MDB for RM7.4 billion (S$2.4 billion), one of the main planks of the plan to retire the state firm’s whopping US$11 billion (S$15.5 billion) debt.

But the lavish party to be attended by Datuk Seri Najib and the top brass of the Malaysia-China consortium that bought the stake didn’t happen, as the deal was aborted last Wednesday.

More worryingly for the Malaysian government, another key plank to bury 1MDB’s controversial dealings – a settlement with an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund over a US$6.5 billion claim – still needs a great deal of work.

The past fortnight was supposed to help draw a line under 1MDB’s controversial dealings. It turned out to be two weeks of unfulfilled hopes. Read the rest of this entry »

Malaysia will be celebrating our 60th National Day anniversary in four months’ time.

On the 60th National Day Celebrations in 2017, Malaysians should ask why in the past few years, they feel shy when overseas to admit they are Malaysians, when they had never felt ashamed to do so for 52 years under the first five Prime Ministers?

World-wide, Malaysia is suffering the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy because of the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal, which is the subject of criminal investigations and prosecutions in over half-a-dozen countries except in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, there is a great pretence involving the Prime Minister onwards, affecting the key financial and criminal government departments and agencies, even involving Parliament, that the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal which is making international news headlines almost very other day, does not exist. Read the rest of this entry »

Trinna Leong
Straits Times
5th May 2017

The financial troubles surrounding debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were supposed to fade away quietly before Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called a general election, due by the middle of next year.

But the aborted plan involving the sale of a 60 per cent stake in the country’s largest property project, Bandar Malaysia, has put Malaysia’s public money woes in the news cycle again.

The upcoming 197ha township at the edge of downtown Kuala Lumpur has an estimated sales value of RM150 billion (S$48.5 billion) and will house the last station for the high-speed rail (HSR) line from Singapore. Read the rest of this entry »

Economist
Apr 27th 2017

A mammoth financial scandal is being brushed under the carpet

FOR the past year 1MDB — a Malaysian state investment firm at the heart of one of the world’s biggest financial scandals — has been locked in dispute with IPIC, a sovereign-wealth fund from the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, with which it was once chummy.

Terse statements released on April 24th suggest the pair are finally making up.

1MDB has agreed to pay IPIC $1.2bn, reportedly to settle a complaint that it reneged on the terms of a bail-out IPIC provided in 2015. The two companies have also agreed to enter into “good-faith discussions” about other disputed payments, which may total as much as $3.5bn. Read the rest of this entry »

Reme Ahmad
South-east Asia Editor
Straits Times
4th May 2017

Bandar Malaysia, the country’s biggest real estate project, is looking for a new master developer after the government made a surprise announcement last night to cancel a deal with a Malaysia-China consortium, saying the buyers failed to meet payment obligations.

In late 2015, Malaysia’s Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) jointly secured rights as the master developer with a RM7.41 billion (S$2.4 billion) winning bid to buy a 60 per cent stake in the project.

The Malaysian government, through a unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was to hold the remaining 40 per cent stake, which has a projected sales value of RM150 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
2 May 2017

A QUESTION OF BUSINESS Desperation causes stupidity to rise to the fore.

Take 1MDB and the way it spins its so-called settlement with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), the parent company of Aabar Investments PJS. There was a dispute and it was settled, but there was no renegotiation. 1MDB capitulated to all IPIC demands.

But this has been spun to give the false impression that all matters have been settled between the two. Ministers rushed to make statements about how the eventual settlement will be in favour of 1MDB and how it indicates that no money went into Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts. Read the rest of this entry »

Wed May 3, 2017
Reuters

A $1.7 billion property deal that was expected to ease the debt burden of Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fell through on Wednesday, complicating Prime Minister Najib Razak’s efforts to move on from a financial scandal surrounding the fund.

TRX City Sdn Berhad, a former 1MDB division now owned by the Malaysian finance ministry, said the deal had lapsed to sell 60 percent of Bandar Malaysia, a major property development project on the site of the former Sungai Besi air force base in Kuala Lumpur, because the buyers “failed to meet the payment obligations”.

In December 2015 Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, owned by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kang Hoo, and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) had said they would buy a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia from 1MDB for 7.41 billion ringgit ($1.7 billion). Read the rest of this entry »

BEN BUTLER, Melbourne and AMANDA HODGE South East Asia correspondent
The Australian
April 27, 2017

Two Gold Coast men involved in a funds management business linked to Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal are to be banned from corporate life for a decade over their mismanagement of Australian investors’ money.

Federal Court judge Jonathan Beach yesterday said he would make orders banning Paul Rowles and Clayton Dempsey from running companies or offering financial services when he hands down a full judgment at a later date.

Mr Rowles is listed in court documents as a director of a mysterious Cayman Islands entity at the centre of the 1MDB scandal, Bridge Global Absolute Return Fund.

1MDB, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, previously claimed $US2.3 billion of promissory notes connected to its investment in an oil joint venture, PetroSaudi, were stashed with BGARF. Read the rest of this entry »

Independent
Singapore
April 30, 2017

With reports that the US Department of Justice (DOJ)- which is looking into the role of Goldman Sachs Group’s in raising almost US$6 billion (S$8.3 billion) for Malaysia’s 1MDB investment fund – is asking questions about money flowing through accounts linked to Tim Leissner, a surprise might be in store.

That is to say, the DOJ is seriously looking into the money trail that moved in between accounts held by Tim Leissner, the husband of Kimora Lee Leissner, also known as Kimora Lee Simmons.

The money trail, said a source, may lead to an incognito banking institution in the most unsuspecting offshore financial services centre in Africa. Read the rest of this entry »

IFR Asia 989
April 29, 2017

The 1MDB saga reached a predictable and sickening milestone last Monday when the Malaysian investment fund said it had reached an out-of-court settlement with the Middle Eastern guarantor of two US dollar bonds totalling US$3.5bn.

1MDB’s agreement with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company was predictable, inasmuch as the Malaysian taxpayer will ultimately be on the hook for the fund’s debts, and sickening inasmuch as it left billions of dollars still unaccounted for.

1MDB maintains that it paid US$3.5bn to an IPIC unit, Aabar Investments PJS Limited, in return for IPIC acting as guarantor on the US dollar bonds. IPIC claims that money went to an unconnected company registered in the British Virgin Islands with an uncannily similar name.

IPIC denied last week that Aabar (BVI) was its subsidiary. But Malaysia’s second finance minister Johari Abdul Ghani last week in somewhat desperate fashion, proffered a letter from the Registrar of Corporate Affairs of the British Virgin Islands confirming that it is (or was).

Can the world of international high finance be reduced to something as utterly farcical and absurd? And when it comes to playing the “Whose Baby?” game, I think I would trust the parent to know, rather than a third-party “verifier” from a faraway land of which the main players in this farce probably know very little. Read the rest of this entry »