There is no proof that the wife of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) had received any jewellery as alleged by the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ), said a member of the government’s propaganda arm, the Special Affairs Department (Jasa).
Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, who is a member of Jasa’s advisory panel, said the jewellery is just a “story” in a complaint made to the DOJ.
“There is no evidence it was bought with stolen 1MDB money, there is no evidence it was handed to the wife of MO1, and there is no evidence that all this jewellery is being kept by MO1’s wife,” he wrote in a Facebook posting today.
He added the DOJ also did not list the jewellery on its seizure list, “proving that the DOJ itself is unsure about the truth behind the complainant’s story.”
The government has dismissed the DOJ suits to seize 1MDB-linked assets as being based solely on complaints by those against the government.
Two weeks ago, the DOJ filed a third round of civil forfeiture suits which claimed among others that money allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB had been used to purchase 28 pieces of jewellery, including a US$27.3 million pink diamond necklace for MO1’s wife.
However, none of the 28 pieces of jewellery are among the assets that the DOJ is currently looking to seize.
The DOJ, however, told Malaysiakini that the facts regarding the funds allegedly used to purchase the jewellery for MO1’s wife “was “highly relevant to the charges alleged in the complaints.”
The DOJ had detailed the purchase of the jewellery for MO1’s wife in its 251-page lawsuit.
On page 100, from paragraph 346 to 348 of the filing, it claimed that the pink diamond was purchased using funds MO1 had allegedly returned to a “donor”.
It elaborated on the diamond’s purchase in detail from page 224 to 228, from paragraph 846 to paragraph 863.
The same filing also listed another 27 pieces of jewellery given to the wife of MO1 worth a total of US$1.3 million.
While neither MO1 nor his wife was named by the DOJ, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the lawsuit had implicated Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor.
Abdul Rahman had last year also confirmed that MO1 was Najib.
However, he said the fact that Najib was not named showed the prime minister was not a subject of investigations.
However, he said the fact that Najib was not named showed the prime minister was not a subject of investigations.
Najib has repeatedly denied abusing public funds for personal gain and attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing.
Whereas a law firm representing Rosmah had warned of legal action against those who make unfounded allegations against their client.
– M’kini
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