Archive for category Financial Scandals
As “MO1”, Prime Minister Najib should recuse himself from being the final authority in approval of the 1MDB-IPIC “arbitration settlement”, and a special Parliament convened to decide on the issue
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Saturday, 29 April 2017
Although Finance Minister II Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani was appointed with the specific task to complete the rationalization and resolution of the 1MDB scandal, he is on public record that he was not involved in the arbitration settlement negotiations and had not been briefed before the “settlement” was concluded.
He said that although he was involved in the decision to take the case to London arbitration as he was confident that 1MDB would win the case because of its strong legal position, the Prime Minister made the decision for the country looking at the “bigger picture”, in terms of relationship between Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
This is not only completely unacceptable but downright unethical and most unfair to Abu Dhabi, suggesting that the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) is so dishonest and unIslamic as to demand double payments for its US$3.5 billion bond guarantee!
It is most improper for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as the “M01” cited in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic litigation (as admitted by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan) to be in a conflict-of-interest position to be involved in the 1MDB-IPIC settlement, especially as it involved the Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) Malaysia (MoF Inc) as a party of the IMDB-IPIC “arbitration settlement” guaranteeing that 1MDB would make the payments under the “arbitration settlement” – which is as good as undertaking that the Malaysian taxpayers will finally foot the bill for the 1MDB-IPIC “arbitration settlement”. Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB Prosecutors Said to Eye Ex-Goldman Banker’s Money Moves
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 28 April 2017
by Greg Farrell , Andrea Tan , and Keri Geiger
Bloomberg
April 28, 2017
U.S. prosecutors investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s role in raising almost $6 billion for Malaysia’s 1MDB investment fund are asking questions about money flowing through accounts linked to Tim Leissner, the lead banker behind the transactions, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department have been interviewing bankers familiar with 1Malaysia Development Bhd. about Leissner’s network of relationships with politically connected Malaysians, said the people, who asked not to be named because the queries aren’t public.
In interviews as recent as last month, the people said, the U.S. officials asked about the association between Leissner, who left Goldman Sachs in February 2016, and Low Taek Jho, who the Justice Department said in July was at the center of a scheme that siphoned more than $3 billion dollars from 1MDB. U.S. investigators are asking in particular whether money was sent from a Leissner-linked account to an entity controlled by someone tied to the Malaysian government, one of the people said. Leissner’s attorney, Marc Harris, declined to comment. An official who answered the phone at Low’s Hong Kong-based company Jynwel Capital said he wasn’t available. Read the rest of this entry »
When was Johari removed by the Cabinet or Prime Minister as the final “gatekeeper” for the resolution of the 1MDB scandal?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 28 April 2017
Although Finance Minister II Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani has denied contradicting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over the arbitration settlement between 1MDB and International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), he has clearly tried to dissociate and distance himself from the settlement.
It is therefore quite unworthy of him to allege that DAP PJ Utara, Tony Pua, was trying to create a wedge between Najib and him.
When news of the 1MDB-IPIC “arbitration settlement” was first reported in the international media exactly a week ago that 1MDB was on the verge of inking a “settlement” with IPIC, Johari was mentioned as part of the “high powered team” leading the negotiations to resolve the dispute, but this was promptly denied by Johari the very next day from Washington, where he was attending a World Bank meeting – that he was not involved in the arbitration settlement negotiations and that he had not yet been briefed on the final outcome of the settlement.
This has come as a surprise to all Malaysians – as all this while, everyone, including Members of Parliament, were under the impression that Johari as Finance Minister II had become the key player in the whole 1MDB imbroglio, in fact the final “gatekeeper” in the resolution of the 1MDB scandal. Read the rest of this entry »
Chequebook diplomacy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 27 April 2017
By Una Galani
BreakingViews
Reuters
27 April 2017
Malaysia will bear most of the burden of 1MDB. Abu Dhabi helped the Southeast Asian nation finance the upstart sovereign fund back in 2012. It subsequently looked like the Gulf emirate would share a large part of the multi-billion dollar fallout relating to the fund, now the focus of money-laundering probes around the world. But Malaysia is throwing its chequebook at the problem, paying up to try to repair relations between the two states before Prime Minister Najib Razak seeks re-election.
A debt settlement agreement announced on Monday addresses most of the lingering financial mess. 1MDB will repay a $1.2 billion loan to IPIC by the end of this year. It will also re-assume responsibility for two bonds, which will cost another $4.8 billion including interest.
The Malaysian investor had initially played hardball with Abu Dhabi. It stopped paying coupons on the notes last year after the pair fell out over a separate $3.5 billion payment that went missing. 1MDB paid that amount to an entity with a similar name to a unit of IPIC, which the latter has claimed it never received. Read the rest of this entry »
The “overkill” campaign to convince Malaysians that 1MDB scandal has finally been resolved with the 1MDB-IPIC “arbitration settlement” boomeranged as many basic questions remain unanswered
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Thursday, 27 April 2017
After the “arbitration settlement” between 1MDB and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC), the UMNO/BN Government propaganda machinery went into an overdrive to convince Malaysians that the 1MDB international kleptocratic money-laundering scandal had been resolved and settled once and for all.
But the propaganda campaign committed the fatal sin of doing an “overkill”, like the claims by the Barisan Nasional strategic communications director, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, causing a boomerang as many basic questions about the 1MDB scandal, which had hounded and haunted Malaysians with the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy, remain unanswered.
Examples of such propaganda overkill, which aroused more doubts and questions, are Abdul Rahman’s claims that the “arbitration settlement” shows that 1MDB funds did not end up in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s pockets or that the 1MDB funds held in “units” in Singapore exist and will be monetized to pay IPIC – as they do not have such results.
Thanks to Abdul Rahman, these questions have returned to the centre-stage of public concern, together with other questions like “Why Malaysians have now to pay IPIC more than double what was actually borrowed by 1MDB” (asked by DAP MP for PJ Utara), “Where did the money paid by 1MDB go” (asked not only by former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed but also by UMNO MP for Kulim Bandar Baru and Public Accounts Committee member, Datuk Aziz Sheikh Fadzir), “Will taxpayers foot 1MDB’s US$1.2b settlement with IPIC” (by PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli), “Who is buying the 1MDB ‘units’?” (by former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin), my question yesterday “Is Malaysia fast becoming a rogue state in today’s international society?” among many others.
Is Najib prepared to convene a special session of Parliament to clear Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy” to give full and detailed answers to all the charges about 1MDB international money-laundering scandal, in particular the nearly year-old United States Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland? Read the rest of this entry »
Italians probe Emirati for alleged insider trading in UniCredit
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Davide Ghiglione in Milan, Simeon Kerr in Dubai and Caroline Binham in London
Financial Times
APRIL 24, 2017
Prosecutors looking at involvement of a former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s Ipic
Italian prosecutors are investigating a former Emirati sovereign wealth fund official over allegations of insider trading in UniCredit shares in 2010 as the fallout from the Malaysian 1MDB scandal spreads through Abu Dhabi’s overseas investment portfolio.
Prosecutors in Milan placed Khadem al-Qubaisi, the jailed former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), under investigation “several months ago,” said a person briefed on the probe.
The Italian prosecutor’s office confirmed the probe and said it is “currently working to collect the final elements” for the investigation. A spokesman for the office declined to comment further. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Malaysia fast becoming a rogue state in today’s international society?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 26 April 2017
The Information Ministry’s Special Affairs Division (Jasa), which has been assigned the special task of exonerating the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Malaysian government of any responsibility for the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal, made a startling statement when its director general, Datuk Mohd Puad Zakashi, said that the arbitration settlement between 1MDB and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) has “weakened” US Department of Justice (DOJ) civil suits and claims that the 1MDB funds were stolen.
Puad may not have realized it, but his statement was as good as a government admission that the US DOJ has a case to apply for the forfeiture of more than US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets, but the Malaysian government believes that the arbitration settlement has weakened the suits from the evidential aspects.
Whether this is so is open to dispute, but it is most startling, to say the least, that the Malaysian government, which has completely denied that there is a 1MDB scandal, both nationally and internationally, suddenly accepting the scenario that DOS had a case to apply for the forfeiture of over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets – subject to the availability of adequate evidential material to prop up the kleptocratic suits.
If the Malaysian government’s stand is that there is no 1MDB scandal at all, that all the 1MDB allegations are the “fevered imaginations” of those with ill-intentions to the Najib government, including several foreign nations, then Puad and the Malaysian Government should be consistent in holding that there is simply no case whatsoever for the DOJ lawsuits – and not talking about the “weakening” of DOJ law suits as a result of the 1MDB-IPIC arbitration agreement! Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia to Pay $1.2 Billion to Abu Dhabi Fund Over 1MDB Scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 26 April 2017
By NEIL GOUGH
New York Times
APRIL 24, 2017
HONG KONG — In 2012, with help from Goldman Sachs, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad sold $3.5 billion worth of bonds backed by an Abu Dhabi government fund to help it purchase power plants.
But behind the scenes, American officials have claimed, nearly $1.45 billion was illegally redirected to Swiss bank accounts and ultimately into the hands of some of the people involved in the deal.
That deal is now part of an international investigation into the Malaysian fund, known as 1MDB, that has plagued Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia. A civil complaint filed by Justice Department officials in the United States said that some of the funds landed in the hands of Mr. Najib’s friends and associates as well as officials and executives from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
On Monday, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi moved to clean up one part of the scandal: who would pay back investors who bought the bonds. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib responsible for the most heinous fake news any government has concocted with the official version that the global kleptocratic 1MDB scandal does not exist
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 21 April 2017
In his speech to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Asia Media Awards on Wednesday night, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spoke about the need to combat the “plague of false and fake news” in the social media and foreign newspapers.
He has however conspicuously omitted the plague of false and fake news in the mainstream media in Malaysia, in particular those owned and controlled by UMNO/BN, which have blazed the path of transforming “newspapers” into “lies-papers”.
False and fake news, whether in social media, foreign newspapers or in local mainstream media, must be equally combatted, exposed and condemned for they are designed not only to distort truth, but deceive the people about the true facts and situation.
In this connection, the greatest surprise in the Prime Minister’s speech at the international media event was his total omission, without any single mention, of the global kleptocratic 1MDB scandal which had haunted and hounded the country and Malaysians for the past two years.
Najib is in fact responsible for the most heinous fake news any government has concocted with the official government version that the global kleptocratic 1MDB scandal does not exist. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysian PM Najib Razak accuses media of ‘fake news’, doubts corruption reports
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Media, Najib Razak on Thursday, 20 April 2017
Lindsay Murdoch
The Sydney Morning Herald
APRIL 20 2017
Bangkok: For two years Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has shrugged off revelations by foreign journalists that almost $1 billion turned up in his personal bank accounts amid one of the world’s biggest ever financial scandals.
Now Mr Najib, preparing to call early elections, has accused journalists of fabricating fake news about Malaysia.
“This tide of fake and false news threatens of turn the truth into a purely subjective matter, with little relation to the actual facts,” he told an Asian media awards event in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday evening.
In a country where the mainstream media is tightly controlled by the government and small independent media outlets are under constant threat of closure and legal action, Mr Najib also claimed that free speech is “thriving”, pointing to what he called regular criticism of the government, ministers and officials in the local media.
But with freedom, he said, comes responsibility. He quoted the then Manchester Guardian’s long-time editor CP Scott who famously declared that “comment is free, but facts are sacred”. Read the rest of this entry »
When major national institutions go “rogue” and refuse to perform their key functions, Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region must stand up to unite as patriotic Malaysians to Save Malaysia from becoming a “rogue” state
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Judiciary, Najib Razak, Parliament on Saturday, 8 April 2017
When major national institutions go “rogue” and refuse to perform their key fundamental functions, Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region must stand up to unite as patriotic Malaysians to Save Malaysia from becoming a “rogue” state.
Recent days have seen many of the major national institutions abdicating their fundamental duties, which was one reason why former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad said at a forum last night that the country would see better progress without current Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali.
Only a day earlier, the Swiss attorney-general Michael Lauber expressed confidence that the money-laundering probe into the scandal-hit Malaysian fund 1MDB by the Swiss Office of Attorney-General (OAG) would bear fruit despite Malaysian authorities’ refusal to cooperate.
Lauber told a news conference “”It’s not hopeless, in fact it’s the opposite”, saying the probe was making progress based on money-laundering reports, bank documents and work with Singapore and other countries. Read the rest of this entry »
Revocation of police permit for Dr M-Nazri debate evidence that the Najib government is running scared of the ordinary people demanding accountability for 1MDB scandal; Najib has no answer to these questions and is unable to clear Malaysia of the curse, infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Police on Sunday, 2 April 2017
I have just learned of the news of the revocation of police permit for the debate between former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, less than 24 hours after the police had earlier given its approval for the debate.
This is most shocking, outrageous and preposterous.
Only last month in South Korea, eight judges of the South Korean Constitutional Court unanimously decided to uphold the impeachment motion of the South Korean President Park Geun-hye in December, removing her from the highest office in the country, and she was arrested yesterday on charges related to abuses of power and corruption.
This is the strength and resilience of democracy and human rights in South Korea when sixty years ago, any notion of democracy and human rights in South Korea was non-existent as it was ruled by a dictatorship – at a time when we achieved Merdeka on August 31, 1957 with the pledge in the Proclamation of Independence of “peaceful and orderly advancement as a constitutional monarchy based on parliamentary democracy”.
Forty-nine years ago on November 24, 1968, I had a six-hour “Great Cultural” public debate with Professor Naguib Alatas, then representing Parti Gerakan, with a packed audience at the MARA Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur, but today, a debate between a former Prime Minister and an incumbent Cabinet Minister to be held at Dewan Sultan Muhammad Ke-5, Kompleks Karangkraf, Shah Alam organised by Kumpulan Media Karangkraf next Friday has to be aborted because of revocation of police permit for the debate.
Are we making progress in democracy and human rights or are we regressing and going backwards in the past six decades, where a debate between a former Prime Minister and an incumbent Cabinet Minister in private premises could be regarded as a security threat and has to be banned by the police in a gross abuse of powers! Read the rest of this entry »
My second lesson for Abdul Rahman Dahlan is the Confucian saying 名正才能言順 as he is not BN Director of Strategic Communications but BN Director of Strategic Lies
Posted by Kit in Corruption, DAP, Financial Scandals, Media, Najib Razak on Friday, 31 March 2017
Today, I want to give Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan a second lesson, which is the Confucian saying 名正才能言順 as he is not BN Director of Strategic Communications but BN Director of Strategic Lies.
In a nutshell, the Confucian saying means that “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”
If for political mileage and survival, Abdul Rahman must mastermind a campaign of lies, fake news and false information against the Opposition, don’t couch them as euphemisms when they are downright falsehoods, like claiming that he is Director of Strategic Communication when he is nothing more than Director of Strategic Lies.
Abdul Rahman had been responsible for many “strategic lies” which include: Read the rest of this entry »
Graft fighting Riau people shocked at 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Monday, 27 March 2017
The Independent
March 26, 2017
There is no polling in Riau that will tell the extent of the sentiment expressed by the locals over the 1MDB scandal.
But as soon as Prime Minister Najib Razak’s image appears on local television stations, patrons in coffee shops and restaurants would mumble in silence: “RM2.6 billion and he walks free!” they would say.
Though Indonesia is widely known for its corruption – which is at times embedded in the culture of the country’s politics in particular – Riau has seen its fair share of a witch hunt.
From Members of the Parliament to Assemblymen, police officers and governor’s of Riau, the long arm of the law did not sit back to watch the criminals get away with corruption.
And the locals in townships and villages are aghast at the fact that Najib Razak has remained in power despite being hit by a massive scandal of international scale. Read the rest of this entry »
The issue in the 14th General Election is whether to Save Malaysia or to Save Najib
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, PAS on Sunday, 26 March 2017
The next 14th General Election will present Malaysian voters with a very clear-cut national choice – to Save Malaysia or to Save Najib Razak.
In less than eight years under the sixth Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has succeeded where the country’s first five Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah had not done in 52 years – subjecting Malaysia to world-wide ridicule and mockery as a global kleptocracy.
I told Parliament in a debate last November that there is nothing to be proud to be regarded as a “global klepotocracy” as a kleptocracy is a government of 3Ps – Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun. Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir said there is a fourth P – Penyangak!
Malaysia must be saved from a global kleptocracy, which will hurtle Malaysia towards a failed and rogue state.
I do not believe there are any Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even political affiliation, who wants Malaysia to become and continue to be a global kleptocracy, and even ordinary UMNO and PAS members, if they understand the real issues involved in the 14th GE, would unite with all patriotic Malaysians to save Malaysia from a global kleptocracy. Read the rest of this entry »
The U.S. Is Preparing to Charge Financier Jho Low in Malaysian 1MDB Scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 22 March 2017
By BRADLEY HOPE and TOM WRIGHT
Wall Street Journal
March 21, 2017
U.S. authorities intend to file criminal charges against Mr. Low, according to people familiar with the investigation, but haven’t disclosed potential timing
U.S. authorities intend to file criminal charges against a financier in connection with an international scandal rooted in Malaysia that they believe could be one of the largest financial frauds ever, according to people familiar with the matter.
The scandal involves a state fund called 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, and the focus of the criminal investigation is Jho Low, a flamboyant financier the U.S. Justice Department portrayed in civil asset-seizure lawsuits last July as central to an alleged plot to siphon billions of dollars from the fund.
The civil suits, which are proceeding separately from the criminal probe, seek more than $1 billion of assets, including van Gogh and Monet paintings and luxury real estate in New York and Los Angeles, allegedly bought with stolen money. The Justice Department is currently seeking to add recently discovered Low family property to the list of assets it is trying to seize, including a yacht Mr. Low controls, the $165 million, 300-foot, helipad-equipped Equanimity, people familiar with the U.S. investigation said.
In addition, Singapore has been building a potential criminal case against Mr. Low, said a person involved in the city-state’s investigation. A Justice Department team has just finished a visit to Singapore to conduct interviews related to Mr. Low and other aspects of the 1MDB matter, said two people familiar with the trip. Read the rest of this entry »
Tony Pua has won 2-0 in the first round of “Open Letter War” with Johari Abdul Ghani – would the second Finance Minister dare to try to gain the upper hand in new rounds of “Open Letter War”?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 21 March 2017
I would adjudge DAP PJ MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua as having won 2-0 in the first round of “Open Letter War” with second Finance Minister, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani.
Would the second Finance Minister dare to try to gain the upper hand in new rounds of “Open Letter War” with Pua?
Johari made three critical mistakes in his opening salvo of the “Open Letter War” with Tony.
No patriotic Malaysian would endorse Johari’s call to Pua to give the 1MDB scandal “a rest”, allegedly on the ground that “the folks of Petaling Jaya Utara elected you (Pua) as their MP to do better things than just being obsessed with 1MDB”.
I believe the voters of PJ Utara, as well as patriotic Malaysians all over the country, want Pua and DAP leaders not to fly the white flag but to continue to demand accountability and good governance over the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal – or Malaysians must be resigned to the mockery, ridicule and odium of the world in living in a global kleptocracy.
I am prepared to organize a series of walkabouts in PJ Utara and accompany Johari and Pua to visit the people of PJ Utara to ascertain whether they want the 1MDB issue to given “a rest” on the ground that their MP should not be “obsessed” with 1MDB.
All that Johari needs to do is to give the signal that he is prepared to take part in such a 1MDB walkabout of PJ Utara, and I will arrange the rest. Read the rest of this entry »
I do not endorse Kuan Yau’s language on his Facebook which is vulgar, vituperative and vitriolic but it is no crime and no basis to arrest him or to deploy scarce police resources against him
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Police on Monday, 20 March 2017
I was shocked to learn of “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau’s arrest by the police in Penang on my way from Parliament to Malim Nawar, on the basis of a police report by Johor Jaya MCA branch.
He will be brought down from Penang to Johor Baru by the police for investigations against him.
I visited Kuan Yau’s Facebook as it was the subject of Johor Jaya MCA police report report against Kuan Yaw.
I do not endorse Kuan Yaw’s language on his Facebook which is vulgar, vituperative and vitriotic but it is no crime, and definitely no basis to arrest him or to deploy scarce police resources against him.
On the way here, I read of the Open Letter by the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani to DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, calling for “ceasefire” on the 1MDB scandal and suggesting that everybody should give the 1MDB scandal a “rest”.
While I look forward to Tony Pua’s reply to Johari tomorrow, I do not think that national interests will be served by giving a “rest” to the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal when every day the 1MDB scandal is making waves and news headlines all over the world – as it is the largest kleptocratic scandal in the world in recent times. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia is deeply mired in a “kleptocratic culture” when a person removed as Minister for money politics and corruption could be appointed FELDA Chairman for five years
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Felda, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Monday, 20 March 2017
Malaysia is deeply mired in a “kleptocratic culture” when a person removed as a Minister for money politics and corruption could be appointed FELDA Chairman for five years. And he is still today the top man of a key FELDA conglomerate!
It is this kleptocratic culture, unknown in Malaysia under the first five Prime Ministers of the country, which has plunged the country into the infamy and ignominy of being regarded and ridiculed worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”.
There had been problems of good governance and democracy in the relationship between the Felda settlers and the Felda bureaucracy in the early years of Felda, and I had spoken on these Felda ssues in Parliament in the very first year that I entered Parliament 45 years ago in 1972, but Felda problems and grievances never reached the kleptocratic level as in the past several years.
This is clear and evident when we see Felda brought low by a sea of problems, not only with many important Felda officials arrested and charged for corruption by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (which is probably only the tip of the iceberg of the problem of kleptocracy in Felda) but the slew of FELDA problems besetting Felda settlers, whether concerning Felda Global Ventures (FGV), Perumahan Generasi Kedua, GSA, education, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB Dormant Amid Global Probe
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Sunday, 19 March 2017
finews.com
16 March 2017
1MDB: The Year of Reckoning
As the international investigation into the billion-dollar graft scandal at 1MBD deepens, the Malaysian fund itself is remarkably calm. The country’s political opposition faces an uphill battle to change that.
1MDB, which is ultimately under the purview of Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been an island of calm amid a sprawling investigation which has shuttered two banks in Singapore, jailed and barred bankers, and revealed an asset haul including a now-grounded private jet and financing for a Hollywood blockbuster co-produced by the PM’s stepson.
The fund’s board hasn’t met in nearly one year, nor validated any profit-and-loss accounts for a whopping five years, Tony Pua, a spokesman for Malaysia’s opposition, said in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, according to «Sarawak Report».
Razak and Malaysia have insisted that 1MDB didn’t suffer any damages, a view that is echoed among legally-minded bankers in Singapore. This view is difficult to reconcile with the depth, scale and detail of the U.S. probe, the largest kleptocracy investigation in the country’s history. Read the rest of this entry »