PETALING JAYA: DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang wants to know if the Umno general assembly, which begins today, will ignore the 1MDB issue for the third year in a row despite public criticism of the matter by the US attorney-general (AG).
In a statement, the Gelang Patah MP said Jeff Sessions had described the 1MDB scandal as “kleptocracy at its worst”, and that no other case had received the same prominence in the AG’s speech at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery held in Washington yesterday.
He added that while Sessions had expressed gratitude for the cooperation of law enforcement agencies in various countries in the fight against corruption and money laundering, he had omitted Malaysia after highlighting the 1MDB scandal.
“(This was) for very obvious reasons, for the Malaysian law enforcement agencies, whether the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the police or the Attorney-General’s Chambers, have refused to cooperate, not only with US law enforcement agencies, but also with other countries like Switzerland in the world’s worst and largest case of kleptocracy,” he said.
At the forum yesterday, Sessions had revealed that nearly half of the US$3.5 billion corruption proceeds seized by the US was related to the 1MDB enforcement action.
He said although 1MDB was created to promote long-term economic development, allegedly corrupt officials and their associates had reportedly used the funds for a lavish spending spree.
“Today, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is working to provide justice to the victims of this alleged scheme,” he added.
Lim asked if the matter would be brought up for serious discussion at the Umno general assembly, and whether the party would demand the return of 1MDB corruption proceeds restrained in the US.
The assembly, Umno’s last before the 14th general election, will run from today to Dec 9. - FMT
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