THE NAJIB-1MBD INVESTIGATION: WHAT IF IT BACKFIRES?

Unless the British police, or the authorities from one of those other countries, comes out with a report confirming that 1MDB is a victim of fraud, this move to lodge reports in various countries is going to backfire like the one in France regarding Altantuya did.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

According to The Malay Mail, Britain has just joined the list of countries that are investigating 1MDB and the possible mismanagement of the agency and misappropriation of its money (SEE NEWS REPORT BELOW). Basically, the issue here is whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak dipped his fingers into the till and transferred any money to his personal bank account and/or used 1MDB’s money for personal reasons.

This investigation is the result of ‘exposés’ by Sarawak Report and reports lodged by Khairuddin Abu Hassan in various countries where 1MDB is said to own bank accounts or where 1MDB’s money was suspected to have flowed into or the reverse.

This is certainly a public relations win for the anti-Najib forces. This makes it appear like many countries have accepted the allegation that the Prime Minister has done something crooked or dishonest. If not why should they want to investigate the allegation, Britain included?

The danger with this, of course, is that with so many countries now investigating (or announced that they are investigating) 1MDB, they had better hope that something ‘positive’ comes out of it. (Positive for the anti-Najib forces, of course, which means negative for Najib). If in the end nothing happens then it is going to be a public relations win for Najib instead.

This is just like the announcement a couple of years ago that a trial is being conducted in France to investigate the allegation that Najib is behind Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder. In the end it was discovered that there was no trial. It was just a police investigation ordered by the court based on a report lodged by Suaram.

Once someone lodges a report with a French court the judge will order the police to investigate the allegation and come back with a report. And this is what actually happened with the so-called ‘Altantuya murder trial’ in Paris, which was not a trial but just a police investigation.

The police then called in numerous witnesses to record their statements and the report ran into hundreds of pages. The allegation that Altantuya, Najib and Razak Baginda made a couple of trips to France, together, was shot down by the police. Immigration and Interpol records showed that none of the three entered France during that period. In fact, Altantuya never entered France at any time.

The allegation that Altantuya was an interpreter in the submarine negotiations was also shot down by the French police. In fact, no one from the submarine supplier had ever met her. They also said that all negotiations were done in Malaysia and not in France and the negotiations were done in English, not in French.

If there were any suspicions before that, the French police investigation and the report that followed it actually proved the reverse. Hence the move to lodge a complaint to the French court and the French police investigation actually destroyed Suaram’s allegation against Najib.

In short, the French police said that the allegation is not true. And they also took private investigator Bala’s statement and rejected it based on grounds that his testimony is unreliable and inconsistent.

Unless the British police, or the authorities from one of those other countries, comes out with a report confirming that 1MDB is a victim of fraud, this move to lodge reports in various countries is going to backfire like the one in France regarding Altantuya did.

This is the danger they face in this latest move. They had better hope that the British, Swiss, Hong Kong, etc., governments discover something and announce that there is evidence of fraud. If not this is going to work in Najib’s favour, just like the French investigation on Altantuya’s murder did.

Now you know why we have heard nothing from France for two years now. Yes, that is the reason why. The whole thing backfired and worked in Najib’s favour. And this may be precisely what will happen in the 1MDB investigation all over the world as well if they are not careful.

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British anti-fraud agency joins 1MDB corruption probe

(Malay Mail Online) – Amid increasing global scrutiny, a UK government department has started its own independent corruption investigation into the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

British daily, The Times, reported in its Sunday edition that its country’s Serious Fraud Office is looking into the 1MDB allegations published in the Sarawak Report, a London-based whistleblower website founded by Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“The Serious Fraud Office is examining evidence, uncovered by a British campaigner, of an alleged money-laundering scandal that threatens to topple the Malaysian prime minister,” The Times reported yesterday.

It also wrote that the Serious Fraud Office is also examining the case where Swiss authorities have frozen bank accounts linked to 1MDB amid investigation into the troubled state-owned firm.

Hong Kong police have also started investigations on bank deposits of more than US$250 million in the city that were allegedly linked to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Financial Times reported last Friday.

The international business publication said Hong Kong authorities were prompted by a police report from sacked Penang Umno division leader Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, who alleged that the deposits, which were allegedly made at a Credit Suisse branch in Hong Kong, were made through four companies allegedly linked to Najib: Alliance Assets International, Cityfield Enterprises, Bartingale International and Wonder Quest Investment.

US-based daily the Wall Street Journal reported in July that almost US$700 million (RM3.01 billion) was moved through various companies linked to 1MDB and transferred to Swiss-based Falcon Private Bank in Singapore that finally transferred it to Najib’s personal bank accounts in Malaysia.

Najib has repeatedly denied any misappropriation of funds, while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has stated that the money was a donation from the Middle East.

Sarawak Report has also published several exposés on 1MDB and Rewcastle-Brown has been accused of colluding with several opposition lawmakers here in a conspiracy to unseat Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak by using the controversy surrounding the troubled state-owned firm.