'Now, MO1's wife must hand over the jewellery'

Now that American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian model Miranda Kerr have handed over the assets sought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in its latest civil lawsuit, it is now the turn of Malaysian Official 1’s (MO1) wife to do so as well.

“With DiCaprio and Kerr handing over their multi-million US dollar gifts from (businessperson) Jho Low to the DOJ, all eyes are now on the ‘wife of MO1’,” DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement today.

It was reported two weeks ago that DiCaprio had turned in an Oscar won by Marlon Brando to the DOJ and that he had initiated the return of other, unidentified items that he accepted as gifts for a charity auction.

Meanwhile, it was reported earlier today that Kerr had handed over to the DOJ jewellery worth more than US$8.1 million (RM35 million), which were allegedly gifted to her by Malaysian tycoon Jho Low (photo), who purchased them with stolen funds from 1MDB.

This comes after the DOJ filed its third civil forfeiture lawsuit involving 1MDB, which now puts the allegedly misappropriated figure at US$4.5 billion and the DOJ is now seeking to seize US$1.7 billion in assets it cited as acquired with funds allegedly stolen from 1MDB.

In the latest filing, the DOJ had also described 28 other jewellery items, purportedly purchased for MO1’s wife, including a 22-carat pink diamond necklace valued at US$27.3 million.

Last week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan had criticised the DOJ for implying that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor had committed a wrongdoing.

Naming Rosmah, Rahman had questioned the DOJ for making such an insinuation when the department did not intend to seize the 28 jewellery items.

Following the DOJ's first 1MDB-related filing, Rahman had also confirmed that the ‘MO1’ mentioned in the documents was Najib.

Lim, in his statement today, said all eyes would now be on Rosmah, on whether she would agree with Rahman that she is the woman referred to as “MO1’s wife” in the DOJ suits.

If so, then she would also need to verify whether she had received gifts from Jho Low that were allegedly purchased with misappropriated funds, Lim said.

Lastly, he said, if she did receive such gifts, would she emulate DiCaprio and Kerr in handing them over the DOJ investigators?

While DiCaprio and Kerr’s gifts were listed under items the DOJ sought to seize in its lawsuits, the 28 jewellery meant for MO1’s wife was not listed as items the department wanted to seize.

In a separate statement, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla said MO1’s wife now has a moral duty to respond to the DOJ’s claims that she was gifted the 28 jewellery items.

It is bizarre, Haniff said, that since the DOJ filed its latest lawsuit 12 days ago, there has been no response from MO1’s wife regarding the claims at all.

“Isn’t it now proven that a non-Muslim international entertainer like Kerr has a higher moral value than us, who call ourselves Muslims?

“Does the MO1’s wife not have a moral obligation to answer, not through a third-party, but directly to the DOJ’s allegations?” Haniff asked.- Mkini