Andrew Hornery
Private Sydney
Sydney Morning Herald
JULY 7 2017

While Miranda Kerr’s silence on her “romance” with Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, which last week resulted in her handing over $11 million worth of sparkly jewels from her Los Angeles safe deposit box to US government agents, has been deafening, PS has managed to unearth a few more details about the model and the moneybags’ seemingly unlikely connection.

Among the jewels Kerr handed over, according to The Wall Street Journal, was a 11.72 carat heart-shaped diamond pendant, a Valentine’s Day gift in 2014 from former “boyfriend” and Malaysian financier Low.

PS can reveal that later that year, in August, Kerr and her Californian-based agent Kristal Fox, enjoyed Low’s hospitality aboard his $250 million superyacht Equanimity while it was bobbing off the idyllic coastline of Corfu.

​Fresh from splitting with her husband Orlando Bloom, Kerr was spotted in Corfu at the time and even made the local press, but it was her host who is raising eyebrows three years later as the central figure in a corruption scandal that has engulfed Malaysia’s powerful elite. Read the rest of this entry »

DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua; DAP Assistant National Publicity Secretary and MP for Bukit Bendera Zairil Khir Johari; PKR Secretary-General Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail; Faiz Fadzil, AMANAH Deputy Youth Chief; Yaakob Osman, Penang Pribumi Bersatu Information Chief and DAP MP for Batu Kawan Kasthuri Patto are to be congratulated for a successful kick-off of the Pakatan Harapan nation-wide tour and campaign to explain the intricacies and complexities of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal to Malaysians in the rural areas.

As the six Pakatan Harapan leaders told the inaugural “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptokrasi” (Love Malaysia, Destroy Kleptocracy) 1MDB ceramah in Penaga, Penang last night, the expensive jewelleries, art pieces, even luxury properties which included Jho Low’s US$250 million (approximately RM1.069 billion) mega yacht – the 3,000-tonnes 54th largest yacht in existence which can carry 28 crew members and 18 guests – will all be sold and the money returned to Malaysians if Pakatan Harapan takes control of the government in the coming general election.

As Faiz Fadzil specifically mentioned, these properties include the much-talked-about US$27.3 million (RM117 million) 22-carat rare pink diamond set in a necklace, which the US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged was purchased with stolen 1MDB money for the wife of “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1).

As Faiz said last night: “Her necklace, we will auction and sell it off and return the proceeds to the people.

“If we can recover the money, we can use it for the people. The pink diamond was bought with our money.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Cordoba Ali
Independent, Singapore
June 28, 2017

Giving the impressions that she might still be under some pressure from the powers that be, former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the institution imposed the highest fines in Malaysian history on the embattled 1MDB.

“So, we could issue letters of administrative compound to relevant bodies and financial institutions breaching Bank Negara’s regulations in the 1MDB case. I would say the fines were probably the highest in history,” she told a Chinese vernacular daily.

But she did not reveal the amount paid by 1MDB or whether there was a ‘discount’ after she left her post as governor last year.

But she said Bank Negara was powerless to take further action than just some fines to “relevant bodies and financial institutions” over breach of regulations in relation to the 1MDB case.

Netizens however does not agree with her on this statement, saying she should and could have done more to expose the 1MDB issue which has since then been thrown under the carpet in Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »

It was announced today that 1MDB had spent RM56 million to sponsor 5,711 pilgrims to Mecca since 2011.

This seems to be a major allocation of charity, but is really a drop in the ocean of 1MDB debts.

Nobody knows what are the total debts which had been piled up by 1MDB, which eventually would have to be paid by generations of Malaysians.

This is because the last accounts of 1MDB to be audited and published was up to the end of March 2014, with three years of outstanding 1MDB accounts from 2014 to 2017 a mystery even to Cabinet Ministers!

The total debts of 1MDB could be in the region of RM50 – RM55 billion – which would put the RM56 million allocated by 1MDB to sponsor pilgrims to Mecca in the past six years since 2011 to represent only a paltry .01 per cent of the total 1MDB debts. Read the rest of this entry »

Late last night, a statement was issued in the name of the press secretary to the Prime Minister – the latest proof of the desperate straits of the highly-expensive UMNO/BN Strategic Communications machinery which completely went haywire, even sabotaging Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor’s carefully choreographed propaganda campaign, as a result of US Department of Justice (DOJ) kleptocratic suits expanding their forfeiture targets of 1MDB-linked assets from US$3.5 billion to US$4.5 billion of 1MDB money-laundering scams through American banks.

The statement that was issued last night returned to baseless, ridiculous and even outrageous personal attacks on me – after I had virtually been forgotten in the past ten days following the expanded US DOJ kleptocratic suits to increase forfeiture of 1MDB-linked assets from US$1 billion to US$1.7 billion, including the gifts of US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace and 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets worth US$1.3 million to the “wife of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” – apart from multi-million US dollar gifts to American actor Leonardo diCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr by 1MDB “mastermind” Jho Low misappropriating stolen 1MDB billions.

After the shocking third series of US DOJ kleptocratic suits on June 15, which showed that the DOJ had not been dormant or inactive in the past 11 months since the initial filing of kleptocratic suits against 1MDB-linked assets in July 2016, Rosmah’s handlers had painstakingly crafted a propaganda campaign to insulate her from “attacks and false allegations”, with her lawyers in the law firm of NoorHajran Mohd Noor announcing that Rosmah’s lawyers are “closely monitoring all postings appearing on any social media platforms and other forms of publications in relation to false and malicious attacks” against her, warning of “legal action without further notice”.

But all these carefully orchestrated plans to insulate Rosmah from the “gathering storm” from the third series of DOJ suits were destroyed by none other than the Director of Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan himself who, in his typical bravado which made him the only person to tell an BBC interview last September that “MO1” is none other than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, opened up public questioning on the receipient of Jho Low’s gift from stolen 1MDB funds for the US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace after Abdul Rahman’s second admission that “the wife of MO1” is Rosmah. Read the rest of this entry »

M. Bakri Musa
June 27, 2017

America is a Rorschach Test to most foreigners. What they view as America reveals more of themselves than of America; likewise, how they react to events in America.

One visitor to Washington, DC, would see only the homeless under the bridges, potholes on the streets, and “adult” stores at very corner; others, The Smithsonian, Georgetown University, and the National Institutes of Health. The contrasting observations reflect volumes on the observers.

Consider the Malaysian responses to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits relating to alleged illicit siphoning of funds from 1MDB. I am not referring to the kopi-o babbling in the echo chamber of UMNO-paid “cyber-troopers” that pollutes the social media. They are pet parrots; babbling whatever is coached to them. With a different master offering more leftovers they could be made to change their tune.

What interests me instead are the responses of ministers and commentators. Their utterances expose their appalling ignorance of the American justice system. They also reveal much of themselves, as per Rorschach’s insight.

One minister, eager to be seen as his master’s favorite lapdog, asserted that DOJ is being influenced by the Malaysian opposition. On cue, the other hounds and bitches piled on. A hitherto severe critic of the establishment pontificated that a former champion college debater together with Mahathir and Daim Zainuddin were involved.

Heady stuff for a young man! Though flattered, Syed Saddiq went ahead and filed a police report against that blogger! Mahathir described best those who believed such canards: “Bodoh luar biasa!” (Extraordinarily stupid!)

Those characters must also believe that the American judicial system is like Malaysia’s, where prosecutors could be influenced or paid off a la one Shafee Abdullah. Sarawak Report alleged that he was paid RM9.5 million from Najib’s slush fund before being appointed special prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim’s case. Shafee has not denied that. Read the rest of this entry »

With American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr handing over their multi-million US dollar gifts from Jho Low to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), all eyes are now on the “wife of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”.

Representatives of Leonardo Di Caprio announced two weeks ago that the American actor had turned over an Oscar won by Marlon Brando to US investigators probing money laundering by 1MDB as well as initiated the return of other, unidentified items that the actor said he accepted as gifts for a charity auction and which originated from the international 1MDB money-laundering scam. Read the rest of this entry »

BRADLEY HOPE
The Australian
June 27, 2017

Miranda Kerr had been keeping the jewellery in a Los Angeles safe deposit box.

Australian model Miranda Kerr has handed over $US8.1 million ($A10.7m) worth of jewellery to the US Justice Department a week after lawsuits said it was purchased for her by Malaysian financier Jho Low with allegedly misappropriated funds, according to her spokesman.

Ms Kerr transferred the gifts on Friday to government agents from her safe-deposit box in Los Angeles, the spokesman said.

“From the start of the inquiry, Miranda Kerr co-operated fully and pledged to turn over the gifts of jewellery to the government,” he said. “Ms Kerr will continue to assist with the inquiry in any way she can.”

Ms Kerr isn’t a defendant in the lawsuits.

The Justice Department declined to comment. Read the rest of this entry »