More than RM1.8 bil moved, says Sarawak Report in latest Jho Low exposé

Sarawak Report's latest exposé reports that Low Taek Jho transferred over RM1.8 billion from one bank account to another in Singapore. He allegedly siphoned off US$700 million from 1MDB in 2009. – The Malaysian Insider filepic, April 23, 2015.

Good Star Limited, the firm of Low Taek Jho that allegedly siphoned off millions from 1Malaysia Development Berhad in 2009, was found to have transferred over US$500 million (RM1.8 billion) to one of the businessman’s bank accounts at BSI Bank Limited in Singapore from 2011 to 2012, whistleblower site Sarawak Report. 

Citing documents from the republic’s monetary authorities, it said the account was under the name of Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corporation (ADKMIC), of which Low, also known as Jho Low, was listed as the beneficial owner.

ADKMIC was the name of the company Low fronted in July 2008, which had previously engaged in the buy-up of a 53% shareholding in the Utama Banking Group (UBG), a company controlled by Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud's family, the report added.

"There is also documented information that US$528,956.027 was paid between June 2011 and September 2013 from the same Good Star Limited Zurich account into the ADKMIC account in Singapore, of which Low was the registered beneficial owner," said Sarawak Report.

Seven separate payments were made to Low's ADKMIC account, according to BSI records submitted to the Singapore authorities, it added.

ADKMIC eventually exited UBG when 1MDB's former joint-venture partner PetroSaudi International used US$260 million from its Murabaha loan to purchase UBG through its subsidiary, Jarvace Sdn Bhd, the website said.

It added‎ that the BSI Bank records showed that Low closed the ADKMIC account on February 18, 2014, just a fortnight after the final payment from Good Star Limited.

The US$700 million allegedly siphoned to Good Star was from 1MDB's now-ended joint venture with PetroSaudi International, which was orchestrated by Low.

Good Star Limited had also received an additional US$160 million from a Murabaha Loan agreement signed between PetroSaudi and 1MDB, which was also masterminded by Low, Sarawak Report said.

‎"There is documented information that a total of at least US$860 million was paid from 1MDB into Good Star Limited's RBH Coutts Zurich account between September 2009 and September 2010.

The website's latest exposé follows an earlier one that 1MDB had presented false bank statements to various authorities about the accounts of its subsidiary, Brazen Sky Limited, at the BSI branch in Singapore.

BSI Bank in Singapore is where Putrajaya has said a portion of the1MDB funds repatriated from Cayman Islands were being kept.

But Sarawak Report said separate sources in Singapore told it that "there is in fact no actual cash in the relevant 1MDB's BSI account, which was opened under the 1MDB subsidiary company, Brazen Sky Limited, merely 'paper assets' of indeterminate value."

As of January 31, 2015, BSI Singapore Bank reported 2‎6 active accounts beneficially owned by Low, containing a total of just under US$17.5 million, said Sarawak Report.

"The discovery raises critical questions, not least over the status of the US$1.103 billion that 1MDB and the Finance Ministry‎ are currently claiming to be in a separate account at the same bank – money which was supposedly recovered from the original deal.

"After all, if so much of the money flowed out of that deal via Good Star to Jho Low, how has 1MDB managed to retrieve it all back with interest?"

Sarawak Report said a senior figure at BSI Bank Singapore was suspended last month, apparently due to the investigation on 1MDB, and questioned the lack of reaction by the Malaysian side, despite Singapore's monetary authorities having already given the information to Malaysia.

The website also said it learnt that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor had met Low in Istanbul recently, during a stopover on their way to Kazakhstan.

- TMI