The Prime Minister’s Office’s key blog of the moment, The Rakyat Post, sought to put all concerns to rest yesterday over 1MDB.
It reported that the Prime Minister had “cleared” Jho Low and was able to “explain” to the public that “all decisions and dealings of 1MDB was done by the management and board of directors”.
It leaves the Malaysian public wondering why the Prime Minister has at the same time called an enquiry to look into the considerable body of evidence that has already been published, which shows the exact opposite?
And it also leaves people wondering what is the point of an enquiry when the outcome has already been thus announced by the person who commissioned it?
After all, the Cabinet was also proclaimed by the Prime Minister’s Press Office as having “cleared” 1MDB of all possible short-comings, although this announcement was subsequently clarified by the Deputy Prime Minister, who has made it apparent that he wants a proper investigation.
Jho Low with Rosmah's son from her first marriage Riza Aziz (left). Jho has said they are 'good friends' and both men were involved in producing Hollywood movie The Wolf of Wall Street
KUALA LUMPUR, March 16, 2015:Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has cleared Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho of any connection with investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).“Mr Low Taek Jho has never worked for 1MDB and all decisions and dealings of 1MDB was done by the management and board of directors,” Najib explained. [Rakyat Post – organ of the Prime Minister’s Office’s cyber unit run by Arif Shah and Paul Stadlen]
More emails
Sarawak Report has been examining the email correspondence between Jho Low with his counterparts at PetroSaudi and other partners of 1MDB.
And it all points to the fact that this youthful operator was exercising a tight control over the executives of the so-called development fund.
Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil –emailgersik.mas@gmail.com
Take for example the following interchanges between PetroSaudi boss Patrick Mahoney and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, the UBG bank stooge within 1MDB.
Nik had attempted to include his new 1MDB colleagues into his correspondence with Mahony and the Chairman of PetroSaudi, Rick Haythornewaite, as the first accounts for 1MDB were being prepared.
Without adequate warning it seems, he cheerfully introduced the PetroSaudi bosses to 1MDB Chief Finance Officer, Radhi Mohamed, to prepare for the questions by the auditors KPMG:
From: gersik.mas@gmail.com [mailto: gersik.mas@gmail.com] [Nik Faisal]
Sent: Friday, 18 December, 2009 3:27 PM
To: Patrick Mahony
Subject: Finance AdministrationPatrick,Sending this out soon as requested by Radhi
cc shshrol, casey, you, rick, tarek, radhi
Is it ok?=========================Dear Patrick & RickI’d like to introduce Radhi Mohamed our CFO to you. As we get down to the nuts and bolts of the JV Co, Radhi will be proactively involved and I trust Rick is the main man where contact will be established. We will be facing our interim audit soon and a list of information required comprising statutory documentation and financial statements of our JV Company and subsidiaries would be sent out for the purpose to prepare for our auditors. I hope Rick and Radhi can link up soon and progress this matter further.Best Regards
However, Mahony, immediately protested to his key contact, Jho Low.
The message he conveyed was that he did not want to deal with the wider team at 1MDB and he did not want people form 1MDB dealing with the wider team at PetroSaudi either – and that included the boss Sharol Halmi, who should be kept out of the loop, as well as his own colleagues and chairman Rick Haythornwaite.
Instead, he insisted that all contact be kept under “close control” between him only and Nik Faisal, who was the key executive at UBG bank who had been put into 1MDB by Jho Low.
Otherwise, he pointed out they would not be able to “control information flow”.
At the end of the email trail Jho Low confirmed his understanding by telling Mahony to “tell Nik, because he will work with you”:
Jho Low assures PetroSaudi boss that 1MDB Chief Investment Officer will do as he is told
Meanwhile, in a separate email trail, Mahony was squaring the situation with other team members at 1MDB and telling them how “things worked” in terms of communications with
Don’t tell PSI Chairman Rick
PetroSaudi, including the nervous CEO Sharol Halmi, who was worried about compliance issues.
Principally, PSI Rick Haythonewaite was to be kept uninformed.
Tarek Obaid, the other Director of PetroSaudi chipped in to complain that 1MDB’s Chief Finance Officer kept “asking the same stupid questions”.
Suitably cowed the said Radhi Mohamed thanked the PetroSaudi team for the “brief overview” of the Joint Venture into which 1MDB had invested $1 billion dollars.
Then Jho Low again capped discussions to reassure that a senior 1MDB executive Casey Tan had sojen to his colleagues to inform them only he and Nik were “allowed” to communicate with Mahony.
He confirmed CEO Shahrol Halmi had “already signed the transfer instructions”, so matters were out of his hands.
Halmi was nervous as he was being given a hard time by some members of the board and the compliance guys and just needed to cover himself explained Jho:
There is a significant confirmation in the above email exchange. Mahony makes clear that only $300 million of the $1billion had gone into the joint venture and as of December 2009 there appeared to have been found no particular use for the money.
UBG proposal for 1MDB Joint Venture
‘Nervous’ CEO Shahrol Halmi needed “to cover himself’ over compliance issues, explained Jho Low
Under such circumstances it seems strange that the Prime Minister/ Finance Minister/ Chairman of the Advisory Board of 1MDB has been able to “explain” that Jho Low had nothing to do with the fund and that all dealings and decisions were made by the board and managers.
Because, clearly the managers were aware that they should do what they were told by Jho Low.
Sarawak Report has also uncovered more email evidence, which shows that far from it being out of the question that money from 1MDB went into the buy out of the Taib family’s UBG bank, this was the very suggestion that was formally proposed by PetroSaudi just days after the signing of the joint venture in 2009.
Early October 2009, just days after the signing of the Joint Venture 1MDB PetroSaudi suggested the JV buy out UBG bank
PetroSaudi had subsequently denied along with 1MDB that there was ever a plan for this joint venture public money to be used to buy out UBG.
However, the letter makes plain that tis idea was at the very top of the planned agenda of PetroSaudi, which had been brought into discussions with 1MDB just a week before the JV deal was signed.
It is inescapable therefore to note that Jho Low was a Board Member and shareholder of UBG at that time.
PetroSaudi Seychelles
Tarek Obaid – acting as a front… but for whom?
There has also been considerable scope for questions, which have been met with absolute denials, about the role of PetroSaudi Seychelles in this UBG purchase, given that it was posing as a subsidiary of the main company owned by Prince Turki bin Abdullah, a son of the then King of Saudi Arabia.
Sarawak Report has pointed out that although it had a similar name to PetroSaudi International, PetroSaudi Seychelles in fact appears to have been controlled by Jho Low.
It was also located at the same mailing address as Jho Low’s company Good Star in the Seychelles, which received the bulk of the money from 1MDB’s joint venture payment ($700 million).
We have obtained a document produced by the lead lender for the UBG buy out, A M Bank, which is a record of the details of a conference call, in which the unusual nature of this Seychelles company and its anomalous relationship to the main PetroSaudi company was explained by Patrick Mahony.
It was apparently all due to Prince Turki’s Royal connections, Mahony had said, which meant hat he Seychelles company was being presented as being wholly owned by Tarek Obaid and not linked at all to the main company.
It seems this explanation was accepted by the bank, even though Obaid was claiming to be a nominee for the real supposed owner of the company.
In relation to the corporate structure of PSI: It was noted that the GO Exercise is being undertaken by PSI, Seychelles which is wholly owned by Sheik Tarek Obaid (“TO”), i.e. no direct link to PSI, Saudi Arabia. Patrick shared that given the political sensitivity of PSI, Saudi Arabia (i.e. involving members of the Saudi Royal Family), transactions involving public listed companies are typically undertaken in this manner, i.e. with TO acting as the representative of PSIL for the transaction and minimising unnecessary exposure of the Royal Family to scrutiny and press.
Sarawak Report in fact questions whether Tarek Obaid and PetroSaudi Seychelles had anything to do with Saudi Arabia or its Prince.
Because the evidence strongly suggests that it was merely a front for using public money siphoned from 1MDB to buy out UBG, something that the government has always denied was done.
- Sarawak Report
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