Archive for category Najib Razak
There must be no Islamophobia or non-Islamophobia if Malaysia is to succeed as a nation to achieve her full potentials benefiting from her diversity and confluence of the world’s great religions, cultures and civilisations in Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, PAS on Monday, 30 January 2017
It is the right of the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to talk about his aim for PAS to win at least 40 Parliamentary seats in the next general election, but it is the height of irresponsibility in a plural society for any political leader to pander to either Islamophobia or non-Islamophobia.
This is because there must be no Islamophobia or non-Islamophobia if Malaysia is to succeed as a nation to achieve her full potentials benefitting from the diversity and confluence of the world’s great religions, cultures and civilisations in Malaysia.
Hadi has the right to talk of his expectation that PAS will win 40 parliamentary seats, just as it is the right of others who prognosticate that PAS may even lose the Kelantan state government which PAS had ruled for five consecutive general elections since 1990 under the late Tok Guru Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who was both Kelantan Mentri Besar in all the five general election battles and PAS Mursidul Am.
Not only that, there is also the forecast that PAS would possibly face the worst electoral defeat in the next general elections in the 14GE under Hadi’s leadership.
It is regrettable that Hadi seems to be promoting a form of non-Islamophobia when he said in a special address in Kedah that the PAS’ previous political consensus with Pakatan Rakyat allies PKR and DAP had achieved the best result so far for the Opposition, but had resulted in a political imbalance.
He said: “Do you realise how the situation was with the seats? Unknowing, the 89 Opposition seats were 21 seats for PAS, 30 for PKR, and 38 for DAP.”
He asked: “Is it fair for this country, the government is governed by Muslims in 39 seats, with non-Muslims having a larger share? This is not right.” Read the rest of this entry »
Najib is consigning his initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates to the grave if he is not prepared to be part of the global outrage at US President Trump’s cruel and inhumane executive order against refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Islam, Najib Razak, PAS on Monday, 30 January 2017
It is now more than 58 hours since US President Trump, at 4.42 pm Friday Washington time, with a stroke of a pen signed the cruel and inhumane Executive Order against refugees and immigrants, creating world-wide turmoil and reverberations, with chaos and confusion in US airports and capital cities all over the world.
What is disturbing is that the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his government are not part of this global outrage at the inhumanity and insensitivity of Trump’s executive order.
It cannot be that Najib and the Malaysian Foreign Ministry had been overtaken by complete surprise by such an executive order, as Trump had in fact been talking about such an inhumane measure since the GOP primary campaign last year, and Trump’s executive order against refugees and immigrants had in fact been leaked to the media several days before Trump signed the executive order.
Najib cannot blame anyone for asking why he acted with such alacrity when he lashed out at Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue but is so tame and tardy when the Muslim world is revolted and outraged by Trump’s executive order against refugees and the 130 million people from seven Muslim-majority countries, viz: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.
As a sign of growing political intimacy and collaboration between Najib and the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, there is also conspicuous silence from the PAS leadership on Trump’s cruel and inhumane executive, completely out of character of PAS leadership which would have been the first to denounce Trump’s executive order.
Is this a sign of growing maturity and responsibility of the Hadi PAS leadership or just of closer political collaboration with Najib’s UMNO leadership? Read the rest of this entry »
Indonesia has spoken. Why is Najib still silent more than 38 hours after Trump signed the executive order banning 130 million people from seven countries from United States?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Sunday, 29 January 2017
Indonesia has spoken. The Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has said that Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, deeply regrets US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban more than 130 million people from seven countries from the United States and to deny entry to all refugees.
Why is Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who mooted the proposal for a global movement of moderates, still silent about Trump’s executive order which had caused world-wide reverberations, with chaos and confusion in US airports and capital cities all over the world.
Trump’s seismic ban was enacted with a stroke of a pen at 4.42 pm Friday Washington time. More than 38 hours have elapsed, as it is now past 6.42 a.m. Sunday Washington time. Why is Najib still keep silent?
It is not that Najib and the Foreign Ministry had been overtaken by complete surprise by such an executive order, as Trump had in fact been talking about such an inhumane measure since the GOP primary campaign last year.
Has Najib’s dilatory response anything to do with US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic lawsuit relating to the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal? Read the rest of this entry »
A week ago, Google returned 255,000 results in 0.42 seconds on “1MDB” search – today it returned 4.41 million searches in just 0.32 seconds!
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Gerakan, IT, MCA, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 25 January 2017
I wish to report that in the first 24 hours from 12 noon yesterday till 12 noon today, neither MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai nor the Gerakan President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong had contacted me in response to my public offer yesterday that I am prepared to meet with them, individually or collectively, any place any time in the ensuing 72 hours to discuss how we can co-operate in the larger national interests to purge and cleanse Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.
I had asked whether Liow and Mah would have to get UMNO approval before responding. We will wait and see what happens in the rest of the 72-hour offer.
Already, there is a strange political phenomenon. In yesterday’s press, I was the target of massive attacks from all the top MCA and Gerakan leaders for offering during my “Jelajah Desa” at Sungai Gelugor in Penang on Sunday to co-operate with PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to save Malaysia from becoming a global kleptocracy and a failed and rogue state.
Read the rest of this entry »
Fund-scandal fallout keeps Malaysia on its toes
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 24 January 2017
By Una Galani | HONG KONG
Reuters
Jan 23, 2017
(Reuters Breakingviews) – Malaysia is still struggling to put its sovereign-fund scandal behind it. Prime Minister Najib Razak was not named in lawsuits filed last year by the U.S. Department of Justice after billions disappeared from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, and he has deftly avoided a legal tangle on his home turf. Nonetheless, the fallout is keeping Malaysia’s leader on his toes.
The scandal at the fund Najib championed has left a dark mark on sentiment around the country. Money from the fund found its way into financing the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” and allegedly into Najib’s personal bank account, something he denies. But mud sticks. One recent survey by FT Confidential Research found 71.5 percent of respondents had a negative view of the prime minister. Malaysia must hold an election by August 2018 at latest, but even with the redistricting of constituencies, it will be a slog to win more votes than in 2013 which saw the worst-ever performance for the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO’ first and second major Goebbellian offensive against DAP have tanked and failed, now we await the third UMNO Goebellian propangada gambit
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Monday, 23 January 2017
I want to remind the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of the Chinese saying “If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it”. (若要人不知 除非己莫为)
This is because the pieces are falling into place about Najib’s Goebbellian Syndrome to use me as a guinea pig to test out Goebbels’ Nazi propaganda doctrine to “tell a big lie, keep repeating it and eventually people will believe it” as the strategy to control the rural Malay mind.
The whole sorry story started with Najib’s UMNO Presidential speech on Nov. 30, where he notched up another octave in the politics of race, hatred and falsehood when he declared DAP as UMNO’s Enemy No. 1 in the forthcoming 14th General Election, declaring that the Malays will have to decide whether to maintain a government led by UMNO or DAP.
This is of course a political fallacy, as whatever happens in the 14GE, whether Najib is toppled as Prime Minister or UMNO loses the Federal Government, the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in the country as there is no way they will lose their political power.
For the past two months, neither Najib nor anybody in UMNO and its propaganda apparatus has been able to give a decent reply to the question recently asked by National Laureate Pak Samad as to how Malays could lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s Goebbelian Syndrome – I am made a guinea pig to test the Goebbels’ Nazi doctrine to “tell a big lie, keep repeating it and eventually people will believe it” to control the rural Malay mind
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Sunday, 22 January 2017
This is Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Goebbelian Syndrome – to use me as a guinea pig to test out the Goebbels’ Nazi doctrine to “tell a big lie, keep repeating it and eventually people will believe it” to control the rural Malay mind.
In his UMNO Presidential Speech on Nov. 30, Najib set in motion this Goebbelian power play, telling three Nazi-style “Big Lies” about the DAP, viz:
1. That the 14th General Elections will be a contest between UMNO and DAP;
2. That the DAP is anti-Malay or anti-Islam.
3. The “nightmares” Malay will suffer if UMNO loses power in the next general elections.
These three “Big Lies” fit the Goebbels/Nazi definition that “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Najib and the UMNO propagandists have not been able to reply to my rebuttal of Najib’s “Three Nazi Big Lies” against the DAP or the challenge to Najib to list out DAP’s Three Big Lies against him or the UMNO leadership – but the Goebbelian attack of “Nazi Big Lies” on the DAP and me have continued. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib is repudiating his father Tun Razak’s legacy in violating the fifth Rukunegara principle of “Good Behaviour and Morality” by leading the UMNO charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies against the DAP
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Saturday, 21 January 2017
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is repudiating his father Tun Razak’s legacy in violating the fifth Rukunegara principle of “Good Behaviour and Morality” by leading the UMNO charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies against the DAP.
Today, through UMNO “mainstream media”, Najib continued the campaign of fear, hatred and lies against the DAP claiming that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had admitted that the DAP would be given the Deputy Prime Minister’s post if the Opposition wins federal power, and lambasted Mahathir for having spent 22 years attacking me and suddenly, Mahathir wanted to give me the position of Deputy Prime Minister.
Anybody who follows public affairs closely would know that Najib was concocting a tissue of lies, as DAP had never asked for the post of DPM, whether under Pakatan Rakyat, Pakatan Harapan or the present Pakatan Harapan Plus Pribumi Bersatu – and I myself am not aware that Mahathir wanted me to be Deputy Prime Minister if the Opposition wins federal power.
I should be flattered that in the past few days, the UMNO/Barisan Nasional “mainstream media” had gone to town about the fairy tale of my being Deputy Prime Minister, hoping to create fear and hatred in certain sectors of the population through dissemination of such lies and falsehoods. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib has achieved what all the five previous Prime Ministers have failed to do in getting Malaysia into the world’s top 20 nations – joining the club of global kleptocracy in short span of 5-6 years!
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Friday, 20 January 2017
It should be a great start for the launching of the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) journey with the first town hall dialogue of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with 500 youths at the Tunku Chancellor in University of Malaya and telecast live to the nation.
But anybody following the TN50 launch-off live from their homes and offices would have realized that there is something missing in the air of the Prime Minister’s dialogue – detracting from the event’s authenticity, bona fides and relevance.
What was wrong and missing about the TN dialogue was brought to the fore when the Prime Minister in his ending remarks called on the youths to ensure that Malaysia get into the world’s top 20 nations.
But Najib had achieved what all the five previous Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah – have failed to do in getting Malaysia into the world’s top 20 nations. Joining the club of global kleptocracy in a short span of five to six years! Read the rest of this entry »
Why is Najib leading the UMNO/BN charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies in the run-up to the 14GE unless he feels that this is the only formula to save himself in the next general election?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 19 January 2017
I am surprised by the speech by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Kedah on Tuesday night that regardless of whether DAP has the top government post, the party will still “call the shots” and run the show if UMNO/BN is defeated in the 14th General Election.
Najib said: “Democracy and politics are a game of numbers. Who has the most seats, wins. Even if the top post of the government is not given to it, the party with the most seats will effectively rule.”
My surprise at Najib personally leading the charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies in the run-up to the 14th General Election is for two reasons:
Firstly, has Najib such poor strategists among his election and propaganda advisers that he is personally leading the UMNO/BN charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies in the run-up to the 14th General Election instead of leaving such “dirty work” to his subordinates, which will give him leeway for deniability of personal approval or even knowledge as Prime Minister and UMNO/BN President for such “gutter politics”, which are most unworthy of the Prime Minister of the nation?
Secondly, has Najib become so desperate that he might lose the 14th General Election requiring him to move out of Putrajaya to the Opposition benches in Parliament, that he has now thrown scruples to the winds by leading the charge and campaign of fear, hatred and lies in a last-ditch effort to save his political office in Putrajaya so as to pack the maximum amount of explosives into such wild and baseless charges?
The ordinary laymen and women in Malaysia can see through Najib’s gambit as evident from the following typical reactions to the Prime Minister’s speech in Kedah: Read the rest of this entry »
Jet, mansions figure in $232 million foreign trust case to be heard in Auckland court
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Matt Nippert, business investigations journalist.
New Zealand Herald
Jan 18, 2017
An Auckland courtroom will on Friday become a battleground over Manhattan penthouses and a private jet amid allegations that they are the proceeds of a globe-spanning mega-fraud.
The High Court at Auckland is set down to hear a request from relatives of controversial Malaysian financier Jho Low who oppose the seizure of assets worth $230 million alleged by the United States Department of Justice to be the proceeds of crime.
US court filings said the relatives are beneficiaries of a number of New Zealand trusts that are claimed to directly own a number assets caught up the probe of a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund known as 1MDB.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in July when the DoJ first filed its seizure claims that $5 billion had been misappropriated from the Malaysian state with payments by 1MDB diverted into private Swiss bank accounts and then laundered into artwork, Hollywood films and real estate.
“We are seeking to forfeit and recover funds that were intended to grow the Malaysian economy and support the Malaysian people. Instead, they were stolen, laundered through American financial institutions and used to enrich a few officials and their associates,” she said.
Financier Low is one of three individuals named in the DoJ action as receiving the proceeds of the alleged fraud. The others are a Hollywood producer and step-son of Malaysia’s current Prime Minister, and a former government official from the United Arab Emirates. Read the rest of this entry »
Mustapha not speaking the truth or in his true self when he said Malaysia must “move on” from 1MDB scandal when the law in Malaysia is neither taking its course nor the authorities in Malaysia allowed to go after those responsible for creating the international money-laundering scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 18 January 2017
The Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad had discovered that wherever he went, even at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he would be pursued, hounded and haunted by the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal which would not leave him in peace.
Mustapha is as wrong as the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who declared in his 2016 New Year Message on Dec. 31, 2015 that his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion donation twin mega scandals had been resolved and were no more issues when the International Trade and Industry Minister said Malaysia must “move on” from the 1MDB scandal.
AFP quoted Mustapha saying “We’ve learned many lessons and we are moving forward” from the scandal, and said:
“Essentially we have to move on and we have confidence that a number of issues that came to limelight as a result of 1MDB will at some point, be behind us.
“We have the authorities to go after those responsible for creating the mess. The law is taking its course.”
Mustapha is not speaking his true self as he should know more than anybody else that it is not true that the Najib government had “learnt many lessons” from the 1MDB scandal and that “the law is taking its course” and that the “authorities” are going after “those responsible for creating the mess”.
Mustapha’s statement in Davos needs an important qualification as the law in Malaysia is not taking its course, and the authorities in Malaysia are not going after “those creating the mess”. Read the rest of this entry »
Generation of “false news” and “big lies” about DAP by UMNO leaders and cybertroopers an index of their growing desperation about loss of credibility and public support because of rampant corruption, economic crisis and worsening racial and religious polarisation
Posted by Kit in Corruption, DAP, Financial Scandals, Lim Guan Eng, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 17 January 2017
It is ironic but true – the generation of “false news” and “big lies” about the DAP by UMNO leaders and cybertroopers are not a reflection of confidence and hope, but the contrary, an index of their growing desperation about loss of credibility and public support because of rampant corruption, economic crisis and worsening racial and religious polarization – particularly among the Malays in the country.
Just before I came to this dialogue, I was reading about the latest UMNO cybertrooper attack on me – ridiculing the statement by the Deputy Amanah Youth Leader Faiz Fadzil “yang berkata DAP yang hanya bertanding di 51 daripada 222 kerusi Parlimen tidak mampu menerajui kepimpinan negara jika pembangkang menang dalam pilihan raya umum ke 14” by twisting what I said on 31st December that “I expect DAP to double the number of Parliamentary and State Assembly constituencies to be contested in the 14GE as compared to 13GE”.
Yes I did say about expecting the DAP to “double” the number of parliamentary and state assembly seats to be contested in the 14GE, but I was not talking about Malaysia as a whole but specifically about Sabah state, where DAP contested in four parliamentary and eight state assembly seats in the 13GE.
A person who is honest, sincere, pious and God-fearing would not have twisted what I said, for it was very clear that I was referring to doubling the seats contested in Sabah and not Malaysia-wide, unless the UMNP cybertrooper has a very low IQ – but this is the quality of UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers attacking the DAP who have to be liars to tell downright lies and falsehoods about DAP leaders which cannot stand scrutiny or challenge at all! Read the rest of this entry »
WHY PRESIDENT TRUMP IS BAD FOR FREEDOM … IN MALAYSIA
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Human Rights, Najib Razak on Monday, 16 January 2017
BY SHERIDAN MAHAVERA
South China Morning Post
15 JAN 2017
Civil activists in the country enjoyed US support under Obama, but the incoming president’s anti-China stance may require him to turn a blind eye to Najib’s domestic agenda
After eight years with an influential friend in the White House, Malaysian civil society groups are bracing for the worst when Donald Trump takes over on January 20.
During outgoing President Barack Obama’s two terms, human rights advocates, democracy groups and anti-corruption activists had cultivated warm relations with US officials in Kuala Lumpur, even meeting the 44th US president on his visit to the capital last year – the first by any sitting US president.
In that time, Washington’s tacit support for their causes had been a crucial morale booster during a period of regular clampdowns by the administration of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who himself was eager to curry favour with the US leader.
But now they fear a shift in US priorities by a Trump administration that is likely to view Malaysian civil liberties as of relatively low diplomatic priority. Or even worse, that a US, which no longer champions democracy and human rights, might provide moral cover for Najib to further suppress freedoms. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the first things a new Federal Government in Putrajaya replacing the UMNO/BN will do after the 14GE will be to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to “chase down every penny from 1MDB”
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Islam, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Monday, 16 January 2017
At the official launch of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in Shah Alam last night, PPBM Chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said PPBM would “chase down every penny from 1MDB”.
I have no doubt that one of the first things a new Federal Government in Putrajaya replacing the UMNO/BN will do after the 14th General Election will be to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to “chase down every penny from 1MDB”.
In fact, if we have a Cabinet which is patriotic and protective of the good name of Malaysia, the top priority of the agenda of the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday should be on how to purge and clear the country of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”.
I said in Parliament that a kleptocracy is a government of 3Ps – Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun.
I do not believe that any patriotic and proud Malaysian would stand idly by and do nothing when the country is defamed worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”!
I also do not believe that the first four Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and Tun Mahathir would have stood idly by and done nothing if Malaysia had been defamed and regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy during their premiership.
Even the fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah would also have acted to defend the honour and reputation of Malaysia if the country is defamed world-wide as a global kleptocracy!
Why then has the Cabinet done nothing in the past three years to put the ghost of 1MDB scandal to rest, instead allowing the country to be battered, haunted and hounded by the issue, which has aggravated the host of political, economic and nation-building crisis of confidence confronting the country? Read the rest of this entry »
The entire mega Cabinet of 36 Ministers should resign collectively on Wednesday if it is not prepared to come to grips with the roiling international 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal and appoint a Royal Commission of Inquiry on 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Sunday, 15 January 2017
In his 2016 New Year message more than a year ago on 31st December 2015, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told Malaysians that his RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion donation twin mega scandals had been resolved and were no more issues.
Najib could not be more wrong as the Malaysian government and people continue to be haunted and hounded by the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal.
In the past 12 months, Malaysia went from the third “worst corruption scandal of 2015” by international website foreignpolicy.com in the last week of 2015, to second worst example of global corruption by Time magazine in March last year, second place in the index of crony capitalism by the Economist’s ranking in May, and full-blown “global kleptocracy” when in July, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the largest kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from US$3.5 billion international 1MDB kleptocratic embezzlement and money-laundering scandal.
There has been no let-up of the incessant international battery and assault of Malaysia’s credibility and reputation in the new year of 2017. Read the rest of this entry »
Cabinet’s greatest tribute to Adenan legacy is to uphold both word and spirit of Malaysian Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Rukunegara principles of an incorruptible, secular and harmonious multi-racial and multi-religious nation
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Sarawak on Friday, 13 January 2017
The greatest tribute that the Federal Cabinet could pay to the Adenan Satem legacy is to uphold both the word and spirit of the Malaysian Constitution, the Malaysian Agreement 1963 and the Rukunegara principles of an incorruptible, secular and harmonious multi-racial and multi-religious nation.
I call on the Cabinet at its meeting next Wednesday to take concrete steps to uphold both the word and spirit of the Malaysian Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Rukunegara principles to establish an incorruptible, secular and harmonious multi-racial and multi-religious nation, for it is precisely because we have deviated from the bedrock principles enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Rukunegara that the country has lost its way and entrapped in a swamp of political, economic and nation-building scandals.
Instead of building greater unity among the diverse races, religions, languages and cultures which have made Malaysia their home, we have allowed irresponsible and reckless people to create even greater disunity by aggravating racial and religious polarisation in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Should Malaysia emulate China and have an Operation Fox-hunt and Sky-net to bring economic or corruption fugitives like Jho Low and others back to justice in Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 12 January 2017
The new year has been a bumpy one for Malaysia, with the international multi billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal continuing to make waves and headlines worldwide.
The Australian Federal Police has announced that they are working with international law enforcement agencies to investigate companies associated with the 1MDB scandal – joining at least half a dozen countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States, which have initiated criminal or legal actions concerning the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal.
In Singapore, the fourth banker had been convicted by Singaporean courts in relation to 1MDB-related accounts – Jens Fred Sturzenegger, a Swiss national and branch manager of the Falcon Private Bank in Singapore who pleaded guilty to six charges related to Singapore’s probe on 1MDB.
Sturzeneggar was sentenced to 28 weeks jail and fined S$128,000.
Falcon Private Bank is owned by Abu Dhabi’s International Investment Company (Ipic) and its Singapore operations was shut down by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in October last year for failing to fulfil anti-money laundering controls and improper conduct by the bank’s senior management.
Singaporean prosecutors had told the court Malaysian businessman Jho Low had control over four accounts with the bank.
According to Channel News Asia, Sturzenegger pleaded guilty to charges of failing to report potentially criminal transactions involving billions of dollars and for lying to authorities to protect Low’s financial interest.
He was also charged for lying to MAS officers to distract them from probing bank accounts controlled by Low by claiming that the accounts were “beneficially owned” by Eric Tan Kim Loong, a known associate of Low’s.
Sturzenegger was said to have lied to investigators about never having made contact with Low. Read the rest of this entry »
Swiss Banker Latest Conviction in Singapore’s 1MDB-Linked Cases
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 11 January 2017
by Andrea Tan
Bloomberg
January 11, 2017
Sturzenegger is first foreigner charged in Singapore’s probe
Former Falcon Bank branch manager charged with 16 counts
Jens Sturzenegger, a former branch manager at Falcon Private Bank Ltd. in Singapore, became the first foreigner convicted in the city’s probes linked to a Malaysian state investment fund.
Sturzenegger, 42, pleaded guilty to six charges, including failing to report suspicious transactions, and was sentenced to 28 weeks in jail and fined S$128,000 ($89,000). Prosecutors had sought a jail term of as long as 32 weeks. His lawyer Tan Hee Joek said in court that Sturzenegger is remorseful and didn’t gain financially from the offenses. Tan said after the hearing his client won’t appeal the sentence. Read the rest of this entry »
Falcon Bank’s Former Singapore Manager Sent to Prison in 1MDB Probe
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 11 January 2017
By P.R. VENKAT
Wall Street Journal
Jan. 11, 2017
The former branch manager is the fourth person to go to prison in the city-state’s probe of a Malaysian state investment fund
A Singapore court Wednesday sentenced a former branch manager of Switzerland’s Falcon Private Bank AG to prison for crimes connected to the alleged multibillion-dollar misappropriation at Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB.
Jens Sturzenegger, 42, a Swiss national who managed Falcon’s Singapore unit, was charged last week with 16 offenses under various laws, including one that requires banks and their officers to enact due-diligence checks on clients to prevent money laundering.
The court Wednesday handed a 28-week prison sentence and a fine of 128,000 Singapore dollars (US$89,000) to Mr. Sturzenegger after he pleaded guilty to six offenses. These include three counts of providing false information to police and central bank authorities, and three counts of failing to report suspicious transactions. The remaining charges were taken into consideration in his sentencing but won’t be pursued separately by the prosecution.
While the charges didn’t directly link Mr. Sturzenegger to fund flows at 1Malaysia Development Bhd., Singapore’s central bank and regulator had said in October that the branch manager had been arrested that month in connection with the city-state’s probe into the alleged misappropriation of billions of dollars from the Malaysian fund. Prosecutors have called the investigation Singapore’s largest-ever probe of alleged money laundering. Read the rest of this entry »