Archive for category Financial Scandals
The threat Najib poses to Malaysia’s reputation
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 29 January 2016
Financial Times
January 27, 2016
Opaque payments to the PM raise fears over the nation’s body politic
Events this week have done nothing to dispel a growing sense that Najib Razak has been a disastrous prime minister for Malaysia. Just 24 hours after the country’sattorney-general found that Mr Najib had no case to answer over a $680m sum paid into his personal bank account, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission announced it would seek a review of this ruling.
Separately, it emerged that Tim Leissner, a senior Goldman Sachs banker and the driving force behind deals with a troubled Malaysian state investment fund, had taken “personal leave” and returned to the US.
Mr Najib and 1MDB, the state fund with which Goldman Sachs worked, deny they are guilty of any crimes.
But the web of allegations and investigations swirling around the prime minister and his affairs are damaging Malaysia’s international reputation and deepening a public trust deficit at home. Read the rest of this entry »
Is AG Apandi guilty of conflict of interest when he decided that Najib will not be charged for the RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Is the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali guilty of conflict of interest when he decided that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had committed no criminal offence in the RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals?
Apandi should have withdrawn from the decision-making process on what actions should be taken on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation papers on Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals, and left the decisions to be taken by the Solicitor-General.
It is open history that Apandi was appointed by Najib in the most extraordinary of circumstances, when the former Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was suddenly and shockingly sacked on July 28 purportedly on “health” reasons, which even took Gani by total surprise.
Up to now, the real reason for Gani’s sacking as Attorney-General had not been given to the Malaysian public, as he appeared very healthy and is even now starting on a new career as a legal consultant after having retired from the public service three months after he was sacked as Attorney-General – three months before his compulsory retirement.
It has been speculated in the public domain that the reason for Gani’s sacking was because the Attorney-General’s Chambers under Gani was preparing to charge the Prime Minister for corruption in connection with Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals.
Up to now, there has been no satisfactory answer on this issue, whether involving Najib as Prime Minister, Apandi as the current Attorney-General or Gani as the sacked Attorney-General.
These extraordinary circumstances of Apandi’s appointment as Attorney-General by Najib in place of Gani are additional reasons why Apandi should have avoided any conflict of interest situation and withdrawn from any decision-making on MACC’s investigation papers relating to Najib in its investigations into the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC scandals.
Apandi’s announcement that there will no charges against Najib also runs contrary to what MACC officials had said on public record. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Najib to present White Paper on his twin world-class mega scandals before the Special Parliament on TPPA tomorrow
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Monday, 25 January 2016
The Najib government has a totally perverted sense of national priorities when it holds a two-day Special Parliament for Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) but not for Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals or the recalibration of the 2016 Budget – with the coming of the “perfect storm” with the convergence of a multitude of economic, political, good governance and nation-building crisis in Malaysia.
Another perverted sense of national priorities of the Najib government is my six-month suspension from Parliament for basically demanding that the Prime Minister should not avoid the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?”, with the string of broken promises about accountability and good governance on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal, like the undertaking that all the questions about the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal would be answered on the last day of the 25-day budget meeting on Dec. 3 last year, the Prime Minister’s public stance that his twin mega scandals had been resolved and are no more issues in the country and the latest signal from the Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel as far as the PAC investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is concerned.
It is sad that Parliament has again proven its utter irrelevance and impotence with regard to demanding full and satisfactory accountability from Najib for his twin mega scandals – which had infamously given Malaysia the third place in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”.
Would the second Prime Minister Tun Razak ever imagined that his legacy will be corrupted by his son as the sixth Prime Minister in causing the nation to be placed third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”? Read the rest of this entry »
Hasan Arifin should resign as PAC Chairman if he is not prepared to be a second “Nur Jazlan” who will delve into the bottom of Najib’s twin mega scandals without fear or favour
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Saturday, 23 January 2016
The Hasan Arifin Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a far cry and a pale shadow of the Nur Jazlan PAC.
Nur Jazlan Mohamad as Chairman of the PAC created parliamentary history in raising credibility and public respect for PAC to such a high pedestal that it became the only hope for Malaysians that there would be an independent, professional and non-holds barred investigation into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s twin mega scandals – the RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal.
In Nur Jazlan’s own words, for the first time, Malaysians harboured high hopes that there was still someone in UMNO who wanted to do the right thing.
All these hopes were dashed when Najib purged his government at the end of July last year, sacking the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the Senior Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, followed by a campaign of fear and intimidation at high levels of government with the arrest or immediate transfer of recalcitrant officers in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Police and the dissolution of the high-powered multi-agency “Four Tan Sri’s” Special Task Force on 1MDB.
PAC, which was launching into a full-scale probe into 1MDB led by PAC Chairman Nur Jazlan, was sabotaged and derailed for four months from continuing with 1MDB investigations with Najib’s power-play of appointing Nur Jazlan as Deputy Home Minister as well as the promotion of three other Barisan Nasional members of PAC into executive branch of government. Read the rest of this entry »
PAC should table the Auditor-General’s interim report on 1MDB at the Special Parliament next Tuesday or Wednesday as part of the PAC Interim Report on 1MDB so that the AG’s interim 1MDB report could be made public and studied by Malaysians
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Parliament on Friday, 22 January 2016
Malaysians must make clear their protest and opposition to the shocking though expected announcement by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Datuk Hasan Arifin two days ago that the PAC report into its investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will not be ready for tabling in the Dewan Rakyat in the March/April meeting.
This is because Hasan’s announcement will open the way for an indefinite postponement of PAC report on its investigations into the 1MDB scandal, which had already stained Malaysia’s international reputation by giving the nation the third ranking in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”.
In fact, I will not be surprised if the “cari makan” PAC Chairman will find some reason to further postpone submission of the PAC Report into 1MDB in the May meeting of Parliament – kicking the ball to the end of the year for the 25-day budget meeting from 17th October to 24th November 2016.
Just as “justice delayed is justice denied”, the “cari makan” PAC Chairman must also understand that “accountability delayed is accountability denied”! Read the rest of this entry »
Anyone surprised by Hasan Arifin’s announcement that PAC report on 1MDB will not be ready in time for the March meeting of Parliament?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Thursday, 21 January 2016
Anyone surprised by the announcement yesterday by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Datuk Hasan Arifin that the PAC report into its investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will not be ready for tabling in the Dewan Rakyat in the March/April meeting?
I believe the majority of Malaysians share my feeling of not in any way being surprised at all.
In fact, I will expect the PAC under the “cari makan” chairman will even miss the following Parliamentary meeting from May 16 to 26, which will mean that the PAC report on the 1MDB will be kicked to the end of the year, when Parliament meets for 25 days from 17th Oct to 24th Nov, 2016.
Again, nobody will be very surprised if the net result demanding full accountability for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Raza’s twin mega scandals by the end of this year will conclude not very much differently from that of last year – where the Prime Minister disappeared from Parliamentary chamber on the last day of the 25-day budget meeting although Ministers have proclaimed to the world that all the answers about the Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal would be answered on Dec. 3, 2015, the last day of the Parliamentary meeting, but there was absolutely no answer to the teeming questions about the scandal!
There is no sense of urgency in the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal since the appointment of Hasan as PAC Chairman, after the derailment of the PAC investigations for more than three months after the “purge” in the government of personalities in favour of full and satisfactory accountability of the 1MDB scandal, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muyhyiddin Yassin, Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, officers in the AG’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Malaysian Police. Read the rest of this entry »
Who is to bell the cat?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 20 January 2016
While Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will get the national thumbs down when he claimed in his 2016 New Year Message that his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB scandal had been resolved and were no more issues for the new year, the Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz received unanimous national applause and support for her statement that Malaysians wish to see the investigation into 1MDB concluded so that they can move on.
When can Malaysians shake off the adverse political, economic and good governance effects of Najib’s twin mega scandals?
This question had been posed again and again in the past six months since the Wall Street Journal revelation of RM2.6 billion deposits in Najib’s personal bank accounts on July 2, 2015, and Najib’s failure to sue Wall Street Journal despite the American newspaper’s reiteration of the veracity of its allegation.
The Malay Rulers, in a historic and unprecedented joint statement on Oct. 6 last year, expressed their worry that if the issues confronting the nation, especially Najib’s twin mega scandals, were not handled wisely and allowed to drag on, not only Malaysia’s economy and the livelihood of the people could be jeopardized, public order and national security could also be threatened.
Will Malaysia be haunted and hounded by Najib’s twin mega scandals so long as Najib remains as Prime Minister of Malaysia? Read the rest of this entry »
Now that I have made an outright denial of the RM1.2 billion allegation against DAP, will MyKMU ask Najib to fully explain or make an outright denial of the RM2.6 billion (or RM4 billion) donation allegations?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Pro-UMNO portal MyKMU.net has challenged me to explain allegations that the party had received RM1.2 billion “donations” from an Israeli source to fund its 13th general election campaign.
In a posting late evening yesterday, the portal said it was putting the pressure on me as I had similarly pressured the BN government to explain RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal implicating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
I would not go to the extent of calling the MyKMU bloggers “blank heads”, an epithet in one of the MyKMU comments, but this post has only confirmed that people with high IQ and with a modicum of integrity will never condescend to become UMNO cybertroopers (or anyone’s cybertroopers) as to post such garbage like this posting on MyKMU.
My explanation of the RM1.2 billion allegation from an Israeli source against the DAP is a flat and outright denial as this is the concoction of the fevered imagination of two persons, one Razali Abd Rahman, who had the temerity to describe himself as Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng’s “former special officer” when he was never in such or any other capacity connected to the Penang Chief Minister, and one Dr. Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, purportedly PAS Research Center’s Chief Operating Officer, raising questions as to how doctorates could be indiscriminately given out in Malaysia that it could be conferred on someone who could be so gullible and undiscerning as to fall prey, willingly or willingly, to a character like Razali.
I wonder whether the MyKMU bloggers have the intellectual capacity to realise that by re-hashing Razali and Zuhdi’s allegations, they are in fact questioning the competence, efficiency and professionalism of important government agencies like Bank Negara, the Police in particular the Special Branch and even the Prime Minister himself as RM1.2 billion is not a small sum which could wrapped in old newspapers and hidden under the mat.
Is MyKMU questioning the competence, efficiency and professionalism of Bank Negara, the Inspector-General of Police and the Prime Minister as they do not seem to know anything about the serious allegation of RM1.2 billion to DAP from an Israeli source to fund the 13th General Election campaign (made some four years ago), and if there even one iota of evidence in such allegations, all of three should be sacked immediately for gross incompetence and inefficiency.
Now that I have given a flat and outright denial of the allegation of RM1.2 billion to DAP from an Israeli source, will MyKMU publish a fulsome apology for retailing such baseless lies? Read the rest of this entry »
If the MACC investigation papers propose the prosecution of the Prime Minister on corruption charges or other offences under the law, will AG Apandi have the gumption and guts to approve such prosecutions?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Crime, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 14 January 2016
The speech by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the monthly assembly of the Prime Minister’s Department on Monday is probably the best proof that the country has a Prime Minister who is living in a world of his own make-belief, completely divorced from reality.
Otherwise, how could Najib repeat what he said in his 2016 New Year Message that his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals are no more issues in the country as they had been fully resolved, as he had promised in June last year?
The first ten days of the year should prove to Najib that he could not be more wrong when he said in his 2016 New Year message on 31st December 2015 that his twin mega scandals are no more issues in the new year, as they are still very much “alive and kicking”, not only catapulting Malaysia to the third placing among the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”, but continue to haunt and hound Malaysians in the public domain every day with new angles, developments, perspectives and revelations.
Lenggong is the 62nd parliamentary constituency I am visiting after my six-month suspension from Parliament on Oct. 22 for basically demanding an answer from the Prime Minister to the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?”
Wherever I went in these 62 parliamentary constituencies, whether the MP is from UMNO/Barisan Nasional or the Opposition, the people regardless of race and religion are totally dissatisfied with Najib’s failure to come clean on his twin mega scandals. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC’s “name and shame” website should be closed down as it only shames Malaysia when the person responsible for Malaysia to be ranked third in world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” is not mentioned
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 5 January 2016
I thank the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for its quick response to my speech at the “Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Kulai on Sunday, explaining that only those who are convicted of corruption are placed on the MACC’s “name and shame list” on its website and not those being investigated.
This is exactly the point I was making, that the MACC’s “name and shame” data base does not make any significant contribution to the battle against corruption, especially against grand corruption, when the person responsible for Malaysia to be ranked third in the world’s “worst corruption scandal in 2015” is not even mentioned.
Can MACC point out any “shark” in its “name and shame” database of over 700 names or explain how it could claim to have any successful anti-corruption campaign when it had not been able to nab, prosecute and convict any “shark” apart from “ikan bilis” with the MACC entering its eighth year of operation after taking over from its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) with more powers, funds and personnel than ACA?
Three months have passed since the Malay Rulers made their unprecedented Oct. 4 statement expressing concern about three national issues causing the grave crisis of confidence battering Malaysia for several months – the 1MDB scandal, the rule of law and national unity in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Two questions for Najib on his twin mega scandals – what were 1MDB’s total debts before “rationalization” and why no one charged court for 1MDB’s multi-billion ringgit losses?
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Monday, 4 January 2016
I have resumed my tour of parliamentary constituencies as part of the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” nation-wide campaign, following my suspension from Parliament for six months on Oct. 22, in pursuit of the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?”.
Kluang yesterday was the 56th and Pulai today the 57th Parliamentary constituency I am visiting in the new year of 2016, and both visits have shown that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak could not be more wrong when he claimed in his New Year message that his RM2.6 billion donation and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals have been resolved and are no more issues in the country.
In fact, the opposite is the case, as both scandals remain foremost issues among Malaysians, especially as they had been responsible for the most shameful episode in the 58-year history of the nation – Malaysia’s third placing in the world’s “worst corruption scandal in 2015”!
Although it will not be possible for me to visit all the 222 Parliamentary constituencies in the country during the period of my 180-day six-month suspension from Parliament, I will try to visit more than 150 Parliamentary constituencies in the country by the time I am allowed to return to Parliament – with a strong and unmistakable mandate from Malaysians from all over the country, embracing all races, religions and regions in the country, to demand that Najib must fully account for his twin mega scandals.
Najib had tried to bury “once and for all” his twin mega scandals in his New Year message, but his effort could not survive 24 hours.
He claimed that he had honoured his promise in June last year to resolve the 1MDB problem, alleging that with the latest agreement announced on 31st December for the sale of 60 per cent equity in Bandar Malaysia to a joint local and international consortium – composed of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings at 60 per cent and China Railway Engineering Corporation at 40 per cent – 1MDB will see its debts reduced by approximately RM40.4 billion, which represents the overwhelming majority of 1MDB’s debt.
Leaving aside for the moment the details of the 1MDB “rationalization programme” to reduce 1MDB debts, as they are indirect bailouts by the Federal Government, there are two questions which Najib needs to answer. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP and Pakatan Harapan prepared to work and co-operate with disaffected UMNO leaders, branches and members in a new political realignment to “Save Malaysia” from rampant corruption, widespread socio-economic injustices and nation-building failures
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan on Sunday, 3 January 2016
The start of the new year 2016 has not been an auspicious one – with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s most disappointing New Year message claiming that his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals are no more issues in the country, as if by a magician’s wand, they have disappeared into thin air!
This is the worst example of denial syndrome in the nation’s history, where the Prime Minister is openly denying the existence of a problem and scandal which he himself could not possibly believe in.
In fact, just three days ago, Malaysia was catapulted into the stratosphere when we won the international dishonour of being named the world’s third most corrupt nation in 2015 thanks to Najib’s twin mega scandals.
Just now, we made history for Malaysia when the people of Kluang displayed the placard “Mana RM2.6 billion?” as a reply to Najib’s New Year Message, not only on behalf of Kluang but of Malaysia, that the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals remain very alive and are the leading issues of the nation for this year, and that Malaysians expect Najib to address them and not to continue to run and hide. Read the rest of this entry »
Does Najib really believe that all Malaysians wake up this morning fully relieved that the twin mega scandals have disappeared into thin air?
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 1 January 2016
If Malaysians wake up this morning with the feeling, hey presto, the 1MDB scandal has disappeared into thin air, then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be fully vindicated with his upbeat 2016 New Year Message that he had delivered what he had promised in June last year that all the problems facing 1MDB will be resolved by the end of 2015.
If a poll is conducted among Malaysians, I dare say that there is not a single person who in the past year had been haunted and hounded by the 1MDB issue would feel on waking up this morning of being fully relieved of the pressures of the accountability, transparency, good governance and integrity dimensions and implications of the scandal.
In fact, the reverse is the case.
Najib’s twin RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB mega scandals have by the end of the year become even bigger and more overwhelming than at any time of last year, as both mega scandals have achieved the virtually impossible feat of accumulating like a snowball even more questions than answers with each passing month! Read the rest of this entry »
Shame of shame – Malaysia named among world’s six “worst corruption scandals of 2015”
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 31 December 2015
It is a shame of shame – Malaysia named among the world’s six “worst corruption scandals of 2015” by the international website, foreignpolicy.com, which is published daily online by the Slate Group, a division orf Washington Post Company.
A report uploaded on Dec. 29 (Washington time), entitled “The worst corruption scandals of 2015” said that “massive corruption scandals embroiled world leaders, high court judges, and the men who run the world’s soccer industry, among many others” in 2015.
Heading the list of infamy was the FIFA (the Federation Internationale de Football Association) corruption, followed by Nigeria, with Malaysia in a dishourable third place.
The rest were taken up by Honduras and Guatemala which took fourth place, Ghanian judges and the UN General Assembly fifth and sixth places.
The infamous plaque of dishonour for Malaysia cited as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB’s love affair with the Arab world
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 31 December 2015
By Khairie Hisyam | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 21, 2015 8:00AM
From its first ever deal seven years ago, controversial 1MDB has had a persistent association with parties from the Arab world. The pressing question, on account of its mysterious and self-harming decisions while benefitting these friends, is why.
________________________________________________________________________
When it was first set up as Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) in early 2009, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) set out to drive strategic development of national interests. After it was taken over by the federal government by mid-2009, however, the meaning of “strategic” seems to have taken an Arabic flavour.
The company’s board of advisors, for starters, count two prominent Middle Easterners as advisors – former Qatar prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani as special advisor while advisor Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak is CEO of Mubadala Development Co, an investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi emirate in the United Arab Emirates.
Read the rest of this entry »
A virtually impossible feat – Najib’s twin mega scandals entering new year in 36 hours with even more questions than answers
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB – have performed a virtually impossible feat, entering the new year in some 36 hours with even more questions than answers.
This, despite being the subject of multiple investigations inside the country – at one time, even by the highest-powered multi-agency Special Task Force under four “Tan Sris” led by the then Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail himself until Gani was summarily sacked in a government purge on July 28 whose victims included the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Special Task Force dissolved – and the target of separate investigations by at least seven foreign countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and United States.
How could this happen?
On Monday (Dec. 28), Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi urged the people not to fall for the latest report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which cited an unknown source in explaining how US$850 million was transferred from 1MDB to a phantom offshore entity. Read the rest of this entry »
How 1MDB overpaid for its power assets
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 30 December 2015
BY KHAIRIE HISYAM | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 20, 2015 10:30AM
On Nov 23, 2015, 1MDB announced that it has signed a deal with China General Nuclear to sell its power assets in return for RM9.83 billion in cash. This sale at a massive loss brings full circle its questionable purchases of the power assets while paying grossly inflated figures several years ago.
________________________________________________________________________
Most of 1MDB’s power assets were acquired within a 16-month time frame between March 2012 and July 2013. The spending spree raised many questions at the time, which remain unsatisfactorily unanswered as at writing time.
The underlying logic of buying over independent power producers (IPPs), as understood by market observers, would likely be the strong cash flow. Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB and the Money Network of Malaysian Politics
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 29 December 2015
by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
Wall Street Journal
Dec. 28, 2015
Prime Minister Najib Razak tapped wealth fund to ease ruling-party’s victory
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was fighting for his political life this summer after revelations that almost $700 million from an undisclosed source had entered his personal bank accounts.
Under pressure within his party to resign, he called together a group of senior leaders in July to remind them everyone had benefited from the money.
The funds, Mr. Najib said, weren’t used for his personal enrichment. Instead, they were channeled to politicians or into spending on projects aimed at helping the ruling party win elections in 2013, he said, according to a cabinet minister who was present.
“I took the money to spend for us,” the minister quoted Mr. Najib as saying. Read the rest of this entry »
How 1MDB overpaid Goldman Sachs
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Monday, 28 December 2015
BY KHAIRIE HISYAM | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 18, 2015 8:00AM
With a number of questionable dealings over its seven years or so of existence, a considerable part of 1MDB’s shenanigans have involved Goldman Sachs who were handsomely, and extremely generously, rewarded. But why is the US firm so close to 1MDB?
________________________________________________________________________
As the fires of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) controversy, long confined to embers unnoticed by the public, continue burning this year, authorities foreign and domestic have turned their attention to one of the company’s friends: Goldman Sachs.
It is no secret that Goldman Sachs seems to enjoy an intimate working relationship with 1MDB, having seen its services engaged for all three of 1MDB’s foreign market bond issuances.
Read the rest of this entry »
Another questionable use of loans – the Goldman bonds
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Sunday, 27 December 2015
BY P. GUNASEGARAM | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 17, 2015 8:00AM
In just one year, 2013, 1MDB had a huge US$6.5 billion (some RM27 billion at current exchange rates) of borrowings from bonds arranged by Goldman Sachs, nearly 65% of total borrowings. The problem is that it is not possible to ascertain how the funds were used.
________________________________________________________________________
In 2013, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) finalised US$3.5 billion through two bonds of US$1.75 billion each, both jointly guaranteed by 1MDB and International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC). They carried effective interest rates of close to 6% (see Part 3 of this issue on the bond mispricing).
And then there was the US$3 billion bond, also priced at around 6% effectively, which had a letter of support from the Malaysian government.
Read the rest of this entry »
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Financial Scandals category.
