Category: Financial Scandals

The challenge of Pakatan Harapan is to convince all voters that the victims of the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal are the 30 million Malaysians as corruption is not a victimless crime.

In normal crimes like theft, robbery or murder, it is easy to know the victims but corruption seems to be a remote and distant matter of little or no concern to the public, especially as there appears to be no victims.

This is however the greatest fallacy of all – that corruption is a victimless crime. Continue reading “Challenge of Pakatan Harapan is to convince all voters that the victims of the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal are the 30 million Malaysians as corruption is not a victimless crime”

By BRADLEY HOPE and TOM WRIGHT
Wall Street Journal
May 11, 2016

At least $50 million allegedly diverted from state investment fund was spent on luxury real estate in the U.S.

At least $50 million allegedly diverted from a state investment fund in Malaysia was spent on luxury properties in New York and Los Angeles by the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter.

Riza Aziz, a film producer and stepson of Malaysian leader Najib Razak, used money that originated from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fund to acquire a 7,700-square-foot, $33.5 million duplex in the Park Laurel condominium tower overlooking New York’s Central Park, the documents and people said.

Mr. Aziz also used money originating from 1MDB to buy an 11,000-square-foot walled mansion in Beverly Hills with a 120-foot-long pool for more than $17.5 million, the documents and people said.

The financing of those acquisitions is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into alleged misappropriation of billions of dollars from 1MDB, according to people familiar with the probe. 1MDB was set up in 2009 to benefit the Malaysian people. Continue reading “Malaysian Leader Najib’s Stepson Allegedly Funded U.S. Property Deals With 1MDB Money”

Tan Siok Choo
Making Sens
The Sun Daily
20 April 2016

“CURIOUSER and curiouser,” said Alice as she grew to more than nine feet high in Lewis Carroll’s fabled novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This is the likely response of non-partisan readers of often contradictory articles about 1Malaysia Development Berhad (IMDB), the report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and strongly-worded statements by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

In a joint announcement on April 11, IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS (Aabar) categorically denied Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, established in the British Virgin Islands (Aabar BVI), is “an entity within either corporate group”. Both IPIC and Aabar also said they had received no payments from Aabar BVI.

In response, 1MDB said it was “curious” IPIC and Aabar had waited “until April 2016” to issue a denial and was surprised “neither IPIC nor Aabar has knowledge of, nor has benefited from, payments made by IMDB to Aabar BVI.”

Under a debt-asset swap agreement on May 28, 2015 involving Aabar, Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) and 1MDB, IPIC agreed to:
» provide US$1 billion to enable 1MDB to settle its liabilities;
» pay interest on the US$3.5 billion bonds;
» repay the US$3.5 billion bond; and
» forgive certain 1MDB debts.

In return, 1MDB would transfer to IPIC by June 30, 2016 assets with an aggregate value of all the sums paid by IPIC.

DAP MP Tony Pua says the value of assets 1MDB must transfer to IPIC total US$4.7 billion – US$1 billion to settle 1MDB’s liabilities, US$3.5 billion for the 2012 bonds and up to US$200 million in interest payments. Continue reading “1MDB – A wonderland saga”

Denise Wee
Bloomberg
May 10, 2016

As Malaysia’s state-owned investment company reaches out to bondholders to explain why it has defaulted, some investors say they can’t wait to hear the end of the saga.

1Malaysia Development Bhd., which defaulted on dollar-denominated bonds last month and faces another coupon payment Wednesday, said it plans a call on May 23 to explain its dispute with a co-guarantor and how it plans to meet future obligations. Returns on debt from Malaysian issuers have cooled amid probes into financial irregularities at 1MDB, whose advisory board has been headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“The political situation in Malaysia continues to be one of the biggest, I would say, hurdles for foreign investors,” said Arthur Lau, co-head of emerging-market fixed income in Hong Kong at PineBridge Investments, which manages about $83 billion globally. “In terms of fundamentals everything points to be quite O.K., especially now with oil prices rebounding. The only one thing that really drags is the political noise.”

The ringgit has slumped 2.8 percent this quarter, turning to Asia’s worst performer from its best in the first quarter. The cost of insuring the nation’s sovereign debt against default has risen 10 basis points since March 31 to 163. Malaysia’s corporate dollar bonds returned 1.1 percent in the period, slipping to seventh place from third place in the first three months, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. Continue reading “1MDB Default Deters Funds as Malaysia Can’t Put Scandal to Bed”

The only way for Arul Kanda Kandasamy to earn some sympathy from the Malaysian public is for him to come clean to own up to all the frauds in the biggest global scam in Malaysian history – the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal – including those committed before his time.

It is just not good enough for the 1MDB president to canvas the possibilities of “massive fraud” and “collaboration from our side” over the US$3.5 billion worth of payments made to the “fake” Aabar BVI, when the international news media and whistle-blower website Sarawak Report had been detailing such “massive frauds” and “collaboration” for almost the past year.

Didn’t Arul take the most elementary measures to check on the veracity of these very detailed reports in the international media and Sarawak Report?

Even more important and relevant, why did he defend the integrity and good governance practices of 1MDB in these these cases of “massive frauds” and “collaboration”?

Nor can Arul exonerate himself from being complicit in Malaysia’s mega scam by just washing his hands and quitting his MDB post, protesting that the issues and scandals at the 1MDB scam were not his and “not what I signed up for”. Continue reading “The only way Arul can earn some sympathy from the Malaysian public is for him to come clean and own up to all the frauds in the biggest global scam in Malaysian history – including those committed before his time”

Two days ago, I posed five questions to the “alpha and omega” of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal, Penang-born billionaire Jho Low, but as expected, no answer had been forthcoming.

In the past 48 hours, there had been more world-wide developments in Malaysia’s first global financial scandal, a salutary reminder that in the borderless world of 24/7 era of information, where information travels at the speed of light, it is no more possible for one country to sweep scandals under the carpet, especially when the financial scandal is of global reach and dimension like the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal.

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak can try to impose a total clamp on all investigations and information about the 1MDB scandal, and even virtually ban discussion on the subject in the highest legislative and political chamber in the land, Parliament, but what is the purpose of such puny national efforts at censorship when the global community and some ten countries are conducting separate investigations related to the 1MDB scandal?

Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal has been described by the influential financial weekly, the Economist, as “an important test of how the world deals with cross-border corruption”, especially after the leaking of the Panama papers – after describing investigations within Malaysia as have been “timid or stymied”.

Such adverse international commentary on the 1MDB scandal a fortnight after the tabling of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB to Parliament vindicated what I had said right from the beginning – that Najib was wrong in regarding the PAC Report as a “comprehensive, conclusive and definitive report” on 1MDB when it was only the first step to reveal and unveil the full “horrors” of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal. Continue reading “How long can Jho Low disappear or go incognito?”

I said at my 108th parliamentary constituency visit to Tanjong in Penang during my “Pantang Undur – Berani kerana Benar” nation-wide tour yesterday that Penang billionaire Jho Low is the “alpha and omega” of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal, that he probably knows more about the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion ‘donation’ twin mega scandals than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and that he should return to Malaysia to appear before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) to testify in its unfinished inquiry into the 1MDB scandal.

There are five questions I would like Jho Low to elucidate to the PAC, Parliament and the Malaysian public, viz:

1. How much was spent in the special operations during the 13th General Elections to defeat DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, in the Penang State Assembly seat of Air Puteh, when money flowed like water in the constituency with free dinners, free-wheeling angpows, lucky draws and the whole paraphernalia of give-aways to the Air Puteh voters? Was it RM30 million or RM40 million? Did the money come from 1MDB through various bogus off-shore companies? Was he ever investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for corruption and money politics for the special operations in the Air Puteh state assembly seat campaign in the 2013 General Elections? Continue reading “Five questions I would like to ask Jho Low”

Y-Sing Liau
Bloomberg
April 21, 2016

Malaysia paid a bigger premium to bondholders to own some of its new Islamic debt as a delayed interest payment by its troubled state investment fund weighed on demand.

The government priced $1 billion of 10-year notes at a wider spread than an offering a year ago. The sale, which also included $500 million of 30-year notes, drew $6.3 billion of orders, compared with $9 billion for an issuance of the same size in April 2015.

Malaysia warned investors that it faces as much as $4.5 billion in potential liabilities as government investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. remains locked in a dispute with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund over debt obligations. The disagreement has led to a delay in an interest payment of $50 million on 1MDB bonds, hurting confidence in the sovereign just when the outlook for the oil exporter was improving amid a stabilization in crude and strength in the ringgit.

“The 1MDB risk might have spooked investors’ sentiment this round as it reemerged when the deal was about to close,” said Fakrizzaki Ghazali, a Kuala Lumpur-based strategist at RHB Research Institute Sdn. Continue reading “Malaysia Pays Bigger Premium in Debt Sale as 1MDB Delays Payment”

Jackie Horne
Finance Asia
Thursday, 21 April 2016

The Federation of Malaysia returned to the international bond markets on Wednesday with a $1.5 billion wakala sukuk whose success will almost certainly be overshadowed by the gathering storm engulfing state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The investment fund faces a cross-default across its $11 billion outstanding debt after one of its guarantors failed this Monday to make a $50 million interest payment on a $1.75 billion note that matures in 2022. It has now entered a grace period, which ends on April 25.

The event forced the government to issue a supplementary note to the preliminary offering circular for its sukuk on Tuesday. It said that non-payment will “constitute an event of default, which could result in acceleration of the 2022 notes and could result in cross-defaults or cross-acceleration of other indebtedness of 1MDB.”

The government added that it is liable for up to M$5.8 billion ($1.5 billion) in guarantees and a further $3 billion through a letter of support to 1MDB, but “does not believe any amounts it would be required to pay with respect of 1MDB’s indebtedness would be material to the government.” Continue reading “1MDB gatecrashes party for new Malaysian sukuk”

The National
United Arab Emirates
April 20, 2016

A leading critic of Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak said corruption had reached levels never seen before in the country and urged foreign governments linked to the controversy surrounding a state investment fund to make their findings public.

1MDB, whose advisory board is chaired by Mr Razak, is under investigation in at least five countries including Switzerland and the US over allegations of money laundering and embezzlement.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, at one time the country’s longest-serving prime minister, said the investigations into the 1MDB fund were not just a problem for Malaysia.

“Being diplomatic isn’t going to help Malaysia or anyone else,” he said on the sidelines of the International Conference on Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Dubai yesterday. “They must recognise action needs to be taken and do what is necessary.” Continue reading “Razak critic urges 1MDB findings be publicised”

Following increasing demands from UMNO quarters that former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir should apologise to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak over his “lie” about Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal in the wake of the Saudi Foreign Minister’s controversial remark on the donation, former Malacca Chief Minister Tan Sri Senator Ali Rustam has upped the ante and asked the Special Task Force on Najib’s RM50 billion and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega scandals to also apologise.

Utusan Malaysia yesterday reported Ali demanding that the Special Task Force on 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion donation should also apologise, as the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir had “cleared the air” on the money transferred to the prime minister’s personal bank accounts.
Ali said the formation of the task force created a negative perception, as people had the perception that the Prime Minister had committed wrongdoings.

Ali claimed that the allegations by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)” were just slander and had tarnished the good name of the Prime Minister and the nation.

Ali said: “This cannot recur. The task force must apologise.”

Ali is both wrong in claiming that the Saudi Foreign Minister had confirmed that the RM2.6 billion donation had come from Saudi Arabian government or that Wall Street Journal reports about the RM2.6 billion donation were just slander of Najib, or Najib would have filed defamation proceedings against WSJ to clear his name.

But he had re-opened a can of worms about the Special Task Force on Najib’s twin mega scandals in demanding an apology from the Special Task Force. Continue reading “Let the four Tan Sris in the Special Task Force on 1MDB respond individually to Ali Rustam’s demand for an apology”

Babu Das Augustine, Banking Editor
Gulf News, Abu Dhabi
April 20, 2016

Massive debt burden seen impacting bond pricing

Dubai: Scandal-hit Malaysian government-owned fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) began as Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) in 2008, a sovereign wealth fund aimed at ensuring economic development for the state of Terengganu. It was renamed 1Malaysia Development Berhad on January 2009 and made a federal sovereign fund in 2009.

The entity focuses on strategic development projects in the areas of energy, real estate, tourism and agribusiness. The 1MDB fund was founded to invest in new industries and attract foreign investment. While little of that investment occurred, the fund rolled up almost $13 billion (Dh47 billion) in debt, a big chunk from dollar-bond issuances, which today it is having trouble repaying.

While the company faced allegations of lack of transparency in its dealings there have been allegations that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates benefited from various international and domestic deals. Continue reading “Opaque fund faces default, uncertain future”