31 July 2015

Cameron’s purpose of visit to South East Asia was to raise awareness of corruption and to assist countries in the region in fighting corruption. When he visited Malaysia on his last leg of his tour, the Malaysian PM was mired in allegations of corruption misappropriation of $700 million of government money and imprisonment or dismissal of his opponents. Cameron and Najib had a private meeting yesterday at Kuala Lumpur. Naturally Cameron raised these issues with Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia. But neither party released any press statement of what transpired at the meeting.

Sarawak Report stated that it had acquired copies of draft charge sheet AG Abdul Gani Patail was preparing. The charges for corruption were against the Prime Minister Najib Razak and a company director, Dato’ Shamus Anuar Bin Sulaiman. The charge sheet also contained another person still at large Nik Ariff Bin Faisla Kamil.

Sarawak Report also stated that documents from the task force investigation into 1MDB, showed that its former subsidiary SRC International (whose CEO is Nik Kamil) had made a number of payments into the Prime Minister’s personal accounts totaling millions of ringgit over a period from last December to this February. The payments were made through the companies Gandingan Menteri Sdn Bhd, whose Director was Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (wanted for questioning) and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, whose Director Shamus Anuar is also cited in the warrant.

Abdul Gani Patail went to his office to finish his charge sheet. He was not allowed to enter his office. Ali Bin Hamsa, the Chief Secretary to the Government, was waiting and he told him (the Attorney General, Abdul Gani Patail) that he was dismissed.

Government said that the charge sheets were fakes and were produced maliciously to discredit the government. Attorney General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali has since issued a statement saying the charge sheets were not written by the Chambers. He added that since the Special Task Force has yet to complete their probe on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), it was not possible for the charge sheets to be drafted in advance.

Referring to a fire at the police headquarters, Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that only unimportant documents were destroyed in the blaze. But many believe that the fire broke out to wipe of important documents relating to the probe.

In a video clip widely circulated in the social media former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin Yassin had said that Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted to pocketing US$ 700 million belonging to  1MDB. Here is a transcript of the short video clip.

“I asked him (Najib): From whom? He did not mention the name, from somewhere in the Middle East. How much?… ‘Hard to count’, he said, ‘a lot, a lot’,” he said in the clip with poor audio.

He continued: “Then I asked, ‘Why was it transferred to your account?… Why did it enter Najib Razak’s account? How much money?’ US$700 million… he admitted. So I said, ‘Why did you put into your personal account?'”

The clip ended there.

This is the sixth in a series of postings on 1MDB saga. The other five being:

MALAYSIA: 1MDB SCANDAL

MALAYSIA: PM NAJIB SACKS DPM, FOUR MINISTERS AND AG

MALAYSIA: WRONG MOVE

MALAYSIA: SINGAPORE FREEZES TWO BANK ACCOUNTS RELATING TO IMDB PROBE
MALAYSIA: PM NAJIB DENIES CLAIMS OF $700 MILLION WIRED TO HIS ACCOUNTS.