There Was No Saudi Prince, It Was Rent A Palace And Rent A Lawyer.

Perhaps I should share some corruption stories of which I have some personal knowledge.  

First lets digress a little. When I was a banker I also handled what was known as syndicated loans. In the 90s these would be very large loans, usually in excess of RM500 million. Banks have a Single Customer Limit or SCL. Meaning a bank CANNOT make a loan to any one customer exceeding 25% of the Bank's own capital funds  (Total Funds).

At that time (before the consolidation of the banking industry) there were many banks. Some of their SCLs could be below RM500 million. So smaller SCL banks could not lend money to large borrowers all by themselves. When there were large loans in excess of RM500 million, the loans were usually 'syndicated'. Meaning a few banks would get together and lend a portion each of the large loans.

The other reason for syndication was that it would not be prudent for just one bank (no matter how big it was) to make a large loan all by itself. It would be more prudent to arrange a syndicated loan and share the risk with a few banks.

So that was my job for some years and I became quite ok at it. The most important part of syndication was networking. You should be able to pick up the phone and put together a 'syndicate of banks' in double quick time. So I knew plenty of bankers from KL and Singapore plus some in Hong Kong and Tokyo. And other people also knew me. 

So here is a corruption story. One day I received a call from a GLC bank - who I had been able to call upon to participate in some loan syndications. They said the Chairman of the bank would like to meet me at his penthouse office at a certain time. Of course I did not want to disappoint the Chairman, whose bank had supported my loan syndications. So I went. 

Upon reaching his office the Chairman of the Bank (a Datuk of course) was not there. Instead there was a group of people, complete with women and children sitting in his office.  I instantly realised what was going on.  This was a pally-pally group and they wanted something.  They asked me about the possibility of raising a large loan to be secured by what was commonly known in money laundering and fraud cases as 'prime bank guarantees'. It was a scam. I listened to them politely and then made my excuses. 

The point here is that the bank's Chairman had allowed his office to be used by strangers for not very good purposes.  And he made himself absent. 

In Nigeria the situation was (or still is) even worse. I have read that for not too much money senior officials at the Nigerian Central Bank will "rent out" their office to scammers, complete with letterheads and stationery. The Bank official would leave their offices for a few hours and a scammer will sit at their desk, complete with fake name tag and business cards. Unsuspecting victims of the scammers would be brought to the Central Bank,  to be given fake letters and fake approvals by the 'fake' Bank officials but using  real Central Bank  letterheads and official stamps.   

(I have another similar story about Indian Police Stations but maybe later.)

Now this is what has happened in this 1MDB, SRC cases etc.  I was told by a Tan Sri friend that in one episode the related crooks created an entire fake office in London. 

The gang rented some temporary office space, put up fake signboards, hired fake secretaries (most likely models) to pretend to be busy typing things,  make the office appear busy etc.  And all this was done to fool our local GLC korporats.  And obviously they fell for the scam.

Now we read that actually the same thing happened to that MACC team (which was investigating the SRC case) that went to Saudi Arabia to meet Prince Saoooooood bin Abdel Majeeeeeed  al Saoooood al Majeeeeed al Saooooood.

CONCLUSION : 

• THERE WAS NO SUCH PERSON. 
• THE ATTORNEY WHO THEY MET WAS ALSO POSSIBLY FAKE. 
• THE PALACE THEY MET IN WAS ALSO POSSIBLY RENTED. 
• ANOTHER FAKE. 
  

First here is the news :

Jho Low's close friend at ease in Saudi palace 

while MACC officers had to observe strict protocol 

MACC officer revealed associate of JoLo no restriction communicating with Saudi Royalty while they were told to observe strict protocol

Eric Tan also seemed very familiar with the palace 

where MACC had gone to record statement of Saudi prince 

We were told not to talk directly to any of the royalty 

However, Tan and several M'sian lawyers were much more at ease 

They was no protocol among them

MACC went to Riyadh to record Prince Saud Abdul Aziz Majid Al Saud's statement 

MACC managed to interview attorney who gave statement on Prince's behalf

attorney identified as Mohammad Abdullah Al Koman

ended up signing statement because prince didn't want to 

We were told Prince would not be signing statement 

the MACC team were given VVIP treatment on arrival in Saudi Arabia

they were flown to Jeddah in private jet after arriving in Riyadh 

We were told prince would only meet us after we perform umrah

• After flying to Jeddah in private jet we were escorted all the way to Makkah 
• placed in special room close to Kaa'ba
• even our robes were provided to us," he said

OSTB :  Accepting a ride on a private jet, going for an all expenses paid umrah trip to Mekka, being provided 5 star hotels, clothes (robes etc) ? The MACC should have known better.

This was official business. Why didn't the MACC get the help of the Malaysian Embassy and the local Saudi Police or Saudi Attorney General? How did JoLo's close associate get into the MACC's official business? 

But here is the real story. There was no such person as Prince Saud Abdul Aziz Majid Al Saud.  It was just a made up name. A fictional character.

There was probably no real  "attorney identified as Mohammad Abdullah Al Koman"  either.  It was just another fictional character. They had someone pretend to be an attorney.

Just that name alone Al Koman (sounds too close to Kuman) suggests that someone was having fun cooking these things up.   Just like that other name "Brazen Sky".

And the fact that the  'Eric Tan' character was so familiar with the "palace" indicates that he possibly rented a "palace" for the purpose of fooling the MACC team.

(If I put you on a private jet and fly you to Kuwait and take you to a "palace" and say that this is the "palace" of Sheikh Muhammad Sabah al Sabah how would you know if it was a real palace or just a  rented-for-the-weekend "palace"?)

I believe the whole thing was a set up. 

They had stolen billions of Ringgit.

Not only did they have enough money to rent a palace they could just as well have bought the palace plus the private jets.

To conclude here is another scam story that I handled when I was a banker. 

One day this Indian fellow came to the bank. This was a smaller bank during my earlier days in banking. He was carrying TWO brief cases - which made my radar go beep beep. He said he was a Canadian. He was wearing a suit that cost more than my annual salary at that time. He claimed to be a huge industrialist. He spoke about setting up some investments here and wanted our bank to consider financing him. He wanted my bank to immediately issue him an 'Indicative Letter of Support'.  Sadly my boss at that time agreed and told the guy to come back the next day.

When the guy had left I did some Sherlock Holmes things. The first thing I noted was that his business card had been 'hand cut'. The edges were not parrallel. Radar went beep beep again. 

He said his factory in Canada was of a certain square feet. I have studied some Industrial Engineering remember, so I checked and realised that the size of his supposed "factory" in Canada was larger than the General Motors plant in Detroit. Wow? And he came all by himself to Malaysia to get an 'Indicative Letter of Support' from my merchant bank?  More beeping.

He had dropped some names - he too claimed he played golf, went sailing with Prince Al Ubdooos and King Al Oo Ba Doo in UAE or something. So I called their embassy here where a semi literate Arab told me there were no such princes in his country. Beep beep beep.

So I advised my boss - to his embarrassment - that this guy was a conman. And we managed to thwart the con. What they would do is take the bank's 'Letter of Support' and use it to con someone else into forking out some money.  Sometimes these people do get lucky.  He certainly had my boss convinced.