DAP wants police to probe 1MDB scandal

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua (second left) with DAP national legal bureau secretary Gobind Singh Deo (right) outside the Damansara police station in Petaling Jaya today. Pua and Gobind say police must investigate 1MDB’s alleged financial irregularities. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, March 4, 2015.DAP wants police to investigate the authenticity of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) documents recently leaked by whistleblower site Sarawak Report, which detailed alleged financial irregularities in the government-owned strategic investment fund.

DAP lawmakers Tony Pua and Gobind Singh Deo said if the email correspondence were true, it highlighted a serious crime involving billions of ringgit.

“In my report, I basically outlined the email documents exposed by Sarawak report which highlighted that there was a conspiracy behind the scenes, possibly to defraud 1MDB of at least US$700 million (RM2.5 billion).

“This is a serious crime (involving) massive amounts of money, billions of ringgit, so police need to look at this particular transaction with urgency so that the culprits can be brought to book,” Pua, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said after lodging the report at the Damansara Utama police station.

Pua was referring to Sarawak Report’s claims over the weekend that Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho had orchestrated the 2009 joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International (PetroSaudi), and that he had siphoned off US$700 million from 1MDB.

Citing email transactions between Low and his cohorts, Sarawak Report said the businessman had used PetroSaudi as a “front” for his business dealings.

Pua said today he had also mentioned in his report that PetroSaudi’s US$1.5 billion assets injected into the joint venture did not exist.

“All these things should be investigated. The whole thing smells like a massive scam,” he said.

Gobind urged the attorney-general (A-G) to take a special interest in the case and to direct that investigations be conducted in detail and as soon as possible.

“This case has generated a lot of international attention, it is important that the police show they are serious and that action is taken swiftly, and that they are able to come back with answers as soon as possible.”

He said the A-G and the Prime Minister’s Department could rest assured that Pakatan Rakyat would be raising the matter during the debates in Parliament when it convenes next week.

“This is something that we will definitely follow up in Parliament so the police must be prepared to answer us,” said Gobind, the MP for Puchong.

This is not the first police report lodged against 1MDB. Former Umno Batu Kawan division vice-chairman Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan had lodged a report in early December.

He had called for a “detailed and comprehensive” investigation into 1MDB and urged authorities to interrogate directors and representatives of any company that might be implicated in its scandals.

Khairuddin was sacked from his position in Umno last week over his bankruptcy case, despite never having been called or sent a show-cause letter to explain himself.

He said he accepted his removal as a price to pay for upholding the truth and fighting graft.

Besides Khairuddin, other Umno members have also taken 1MDB to task, the most prominent critics being former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is headed by Umno MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, has also asked the auditor general to conduct an audit of the troubled firm before the PAC itself probes 1MDB.

- TMI