Category: Financial Scandals

Oliver Holmes, South-east Asia correspondent
Guardian
19th December 2016

Exclusive: diplomatic cable said an investigation into mysterious $700m found in Najib Razak’s bank account had not absolved him of corruption

The British embassy in Kuala Lumpur has questioned a claim by the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, that his country’s anti-graft agency had cleared him of corruption, according to a diplomatic cable seen by the Guardian.

Malaysia’s anti-corruption commission (MACC) said in August last year that its investigation had found that nearly US$700m had been deposited into Najib’s personal bank account from unnamed “donors”.

It did not elaborate on the donor or why they transferred funds to Najib’s private accounts but said the money was not from the debt-laden state fund 1MDB, which had been the focus of the scandal.

Five days later, Najib told members of his ruling party that the MACC had cleared him of corruption allegations. Continue reading “British embassy questioned whether Malaysian PM cleared of corruption”

The Newspaper, Singapore
Dec 17, 2016

2 JAILED

Yak Yew Chee, 57
Jailed 18 weeks, fined $24,000

*The former managing director of BSI Singapore was the relationship manager for Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho.
*Pleaded guilty in November to two counts each of forgery and failing to report suspicious transactions.
*Also offered to give to the State $7.5 million of the bonuses he received from BSI.

Yvonne Seah Yew Foong, 45
Jailed 2 weeks, fined $10,000

*A director at BSI Singapore, was the next most senior banker on Yak’s team.
*Pleaded guilty to three charges of aiding in forging documents and failing to report suspicious transactions.

Continue reading “SINGAPORE – Casualties from the 1MDB fallout”

South China Morning Post
AFP
14 December, 2016

Thailand will free a Swiss man jailed for blackmail in a case linked to a graft scandal engulfing the 1MDB Malaysian state investment fund, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Xavier Justo was jailed last August for attempting to blackmail his former employer PetroSaudi International, a Saudi oil firm allegedly involved in corrupt dealings with Malaysian fund 1MDB.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who launched the scandal-mired 1MDB, has been besieged by allegations that he and his cronies looted billions of dollars from it, prompting calls for him to resign.

According to Thai police Justo was jailed after demanding around US$2.5 million from PetroSaudi to return sensitive company data he claimed to have taken before leaving the firm in 2011.

He was arrested on the Thai island of Koh Samui in June 2015 and handed a three-year sentence.

But on Wednesday his lawyer said he will get out early after a mass prisoner amnesty. Continue reading “Thailand to free Swiss man linked to 1MDB scandal”

by Andrea Tan and Melissa Cheok
Bloomberg
December 16, 2016

Yvonne Seah Yew Foong, a former BSI SA private banker, became the second person to be convicted in Singapore’s probe into alleged money laundering linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Judge Salina Ishak found Seah guilty of three charges in a Singapore state court Friday for aiding in forging documents and failing to report suspicious transactions allegedly related to Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho. Prosecutors are taking into account four other charges in seeking a two-week jail sentence for Seah, 45, while her lawyer Peter Low asked for a fine.

Imposing a fine for the “well-heeled” like Seah isn’t a sufficient deterrent, prosecutor Nathaniel Khng said in seeking the prison term. Seah’s conduct had harmed Singapore’s reputation, he said. Continue reading “Ex-BSI Banker Seah Convicted of 3 Charges Tied to 1MDB Case”

by Edvard Pettersson
Bloomberg
December 14, 2016

A U.S. effort to seize about $1 billion in assets allegedly acquired with funds siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. is moving ahead over objections from relatives of the Malaysian financier at the center of the scandal.

A Los Angeles federal judge’s ruling Monday blocking family members of Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, from intervening in the forfeiture lawsuits gives the government the upper hand as it seeks to confiscate properties including a $100-million interest in EMI Music Publishing Group, a $35 million Bombardier jet and a $380-million stake in the Park Lane Hotel in New York.

To fight back against the U.S. in Low’s absence, four of his relatives, including his father and brother, are trying to replace the Swiss trustees holding the assets that have declined to oppose the forfeiture. According to the family, the Swiss trustees fear being exposed to criminal liability if they get involved.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer refused in Monday’s ruling to give the relatives additional time to pursue legal action in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands, where they are trying to replace the trustees with others who are more willing to defend their interests. Continue reading “U.S. Seizure of 1MDB Assets Moves on With Jho Low’s Family Sidelined”

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah’s warning yesterday about rampant grand corruption in the country should be reminder to the Cabinet, Parliament and the ruling political parties of their failure to address this critical issue in Malaysia.

Sultan Nazrin’s concern over corruption and criminal breach of trust committed openly by highly-educated and high-ranking individuals should serve as a salutary end-of-the-year reminder to both the Federal and State Governments that Malaysia must break away from the trajectory of a failed and rogue state where corruption and abuses of power become the prevailing order of the day.

The Perak Sultan’s warning is most timely as a serious denial syndrome has afflicted the political leadership in the country, refusing to acknowledge that Malaysia has broken an infamous barrier when it is regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”.

This is not the first time that the Rulers have expressed concern about the importance of upholding public integrity in Malaysia. Continue reading “Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah’s warning about rampant grand corruption should be reminder to Cabinet, Parliament and the ruling political parties of their failure to address this critical issue in Malaysia”

If the authorities are not out on a “witch-hunt”, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should be the first person who should be probed by the police for “foreign funding” and not Ambiga Sreenivasan or Bersih, for three reasons:

Firstly, the quantum. The amount of “foreign funding” which went into Najib’s personal banking accounts boggles the imagination – at first it was the gargantuan figure of RM2.6 billion and later it was expanded to an even more astronomical figure of RM4.2 billion.

No sane person would dispute the claim by Ambiga, who headed Bersih from 2010 to 2013, that Bersih had at all times been transparent about its finding and accounts, and had never hidden the fact that it had received US$25,000 from Open Society Institute (OSI) and US$9,690 from National Democracy Institute (NDI) in 2011 which were used in election-related projects.

But what is US$34,690 compared to the over US$1 billion foreign funding which had been deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts – as the “foreign funding” that was deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts was 30 million times larger than the puny figures which Bersih had received from OSI and NDI in 2011. Continue reading “If authorities are not out on a “witch-hunt”, Najib should be the first person who should be probed for “foreign funding” and not Ambiga or Bersih”

By Praveen Menon | KUALA LUMPUR
Reuters
Fri Dec 9, 2016

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stern rebuke to Myanmar for a military-led crackdown on Muslim Rohingyas was a rarity among Southeast Asian nations, who adhere to a policy of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs.

Critics saw the beleaguered Najib reaching for the moral high ground with his criticism over the weekend of Myanmar in order to pander to Malay Muslim voters after a series of protests calling for him to resign over a corruption scandal.

Najib is eyeing elections in the second half of 2017, nearly a year ahead of the 2018 deadline, a government source told Reuters.

At a rally on Sunday, Najib called for foreign intervention to stop the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims and lashed out at Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for her inaction. Continue reading “Malaysia PM opens thorny debate in accusing Myanmar of genocide”

Economist
Nov 26th 2016

But the opposition has to do more to win over rural Malays

FORTY thousand people wearing yellow shirts gathered in Malaysia’s capital on November 19th, to protest against corruption and impunity in government. The rally was orderly and restrained; the response of the authorities was not. On the eve of the protest, police arrested Maria Chin Abdullah, leader of a coalition of human-rights groups that organised the event. She was placed in solitary confinement, and can be held there for 28 days. Even by Malaysia’s dismal recent standards this marked a fresh low. Ordinary Malaysians should not stand by while their leaders undermine the rule of law so casually. Continue reading “Malaysians underestimate the damage caused by the 1MDB scandal”

Reuters
8th December 2016

Relatives of a Malaysian financier at the center of the 1MDB fund scandal were dealt a setback in their efforts to claim assets seized by the U.S. government when a federal judge denied a motion that would have given them time to try their luck in overseas courts.

Earlier this week four relatives of Low Taek Jho filed a motion to delay the Dec. 12 hearing to Jan. 23 so they could go to courts in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands to try and get real estate and other assets transferred to a new trustee.

In a one-sentence ruling, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer denied both the motion to postpone the hearing and a separate request to extend the deadline for filing a claim. No reason was given in the filing, dated Wednesday. Continue reading “Jho Low family dealt setback in move to claim assets in 1MDB probe”

BY BHAVAN JAIPRAGAS
South China Morning Post
7 DEC 2016

China’s economic largesse to Malaysia was back in the spotlight on Wednesday following an apparent renewed effort by Beijing to bail out the Southeast Asian country’s beleaguered 1MDB state investment fund.

Political observers say such multibillion-dollar favours are likely to continue unabated as China seeks to bring a key trading partner closer into its strategic orbit and as Prime Minister Najib Razak turns away from the West, where he is accused of running a kleptocracy.

The Financial Times newspaper in a report on Wednesday said China “had been approached” to help 1MDB – embattled by a long-running money laundering scandal linked to Najib – pay off a US$6.5 billion (HK$50.4 billion) debt to an Abu Dhabi state investment arm. Continue reading “HAS CHINA OFFERED TO BAIL OUT MALAYSIA’S 1MDB? AT WHAT COST?”

by Edvard Pettersson
Bloomberg
December 6, 2016

Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho’s family is reaching far and wide to stop the U.S. from seizing $650 million in real estate and business investments the government claims were acquired with funds stolen from his home country.

The family of the businessman known as Jho Low claims the Swiss trustees holding their assets are afraid to fight back against the U.S. for fear of being prosecuted in the global game of investment hide and seek set off by the alleged disappearance of more than $3.5 billion of the $8 billion raised by 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Four relatives of Low, including his father and brother, now say they will ask courts in the Cayman Islands and New Zealand to replace the Swiss trustees — so they can avoid having their possessions go to the U.S. by default. Continue reading “Jho Low Family Digs in to Stop 1MDB Asset Seizure by U.S.”

Katharina Bart
finews.asia
6 December 2016

Investigators are probing what they believe is a billion-dollar graft scandal at Malaysian state fund 1MDB. What is the role of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth executives?

As investigators in at least five countries probe an alleged billion-dollar corruption scheme, Abu Dhabi has been largely silent about its association with the Malaysian state fund.

Khadem al-Qubais–, who previously ran IPIC, one of Abu Dhabi’s largest sovereign wealth funds, until last year was responsible for billions in investments for the ruling family of Abu Dhabi – including stakes in Barclays, Daimler and Glencore.

He is also believed to have run a lucrative embezzlement and money-laundering racket which brought millions to his personal account, «The Wall Street Journal» reported. Former BSI private bankers have admitted running similarly lucrative side gigs in Singapore. Continue reading “1MDB: The Abu Dhabi Connection”

Jeevan Vasagar in Kuala Lumpur, Caroline Binham in London and Simeon Kerr in Dubai
Financial Times
Dec 7, 2016

Troubled Malaysian state investment fund ready to make repayment to Abu Dhabi’s Ipic

Malaysia’s troubled state investment fund 1MDB is preparing to make a repayment, with Chinese assistance, to Abu Dhabi’s state-owned International Petroleum Investment Company, as it seeks to settle a dispute in which the Emirati fund is claiming about $6.5bn.

The move to begin repaying what the Malaysian fund owes, confirmed by two people familiar with the matter, marks a step forward in efforts to resolve the financial position of the heavily indebted state fund.

The two funds reached an impasse earlier this year, with 1MDB insisting it had fulfilled its obligations and Ipic taking the dispute to arbitration in London.

The relationship between the two funds — once hailed as a “strategic partnership” between Abu Dhabi and Malaysia — has gone sour amid allegations that Emirati officials were involved in a plot to siphon more than $1bn from 1MDB.

Khadem al-Qubaisi, former head of Ipic, has been detained over his suspected role in the affair. He has not been charged with any offence.

China has been approached as a source of funds for 1MDB, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, one of whom said Malaysia would swap assets for financing. Continue reading “China to help 1MDB settle multibillion-dollar legal dispute”

Reuters
Dec 6, 2016

Relatives of Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho are seeking fresh court action in a bid to prevent the U.S. government from seizing assets as part of an investigation into the scandal-tainted 1MDB fund, according to a U.S. court filing.

Four relatives of Low Taek Jho are planning to file court actions in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands this week to have real estate and other assets transferred to a new trustee, according to a motion on Monday in federal court in Los Angeles.

The motion seeks to push a hearing on the case out to a later date, noting that there is an effort to take the case to courts in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands.

The businessman, commonly referred to as Jho Low, is among the people named in civil lawsuits filed earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Justice, which alleged that more than $3.5 billion was misappropriated from the 1MDB fund. Continue reading “Family of Malaysia’s Jho Low moves to protect assets in 1MDB probe”