The freezing of accounts linked to Najib’s family is badly affecting his cancer-stricken daughter, Puteri Norlisa

The freezing of accounts belonging to Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak’s immediate and extended family members has brought great anguish to his elder daughter, Puteri Norlisa binti Najib.

Due to the freeze, Norlisa is facing a very difficult time footing her bills to treat the stage-four cancer she’s been diagnosed with.

For the freeze to have happened, Dato’ Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull would have had to submit a report to Tommy Thomas stating in no uncertain terms the reason the MACC suspected that she received funds from 1MDB.

Tommy, in turn, would have had to study the report first before instructing Bank Negara to freeze her account.

Question is, did Tommy read the US DoJ report – which, incidentally, is what the MACC investigation into 1MDB was hinged solely upon – and see Norlisa’s name mentioned anywhere in it?

THE THIRD FORCE

On the 29^th of June 2018, the internet went abuzz with news that the MACC had frozen close to 900 accounts linked to 1MDB. Prior to that, the agency undertook to freeze several UMNO accounts on grounds that the party may have received money from the wealth fund. On the 30th of June 2018, Dr Mahathir Mohamad defended the anti-graft agency by insisting that the Government of Malaysia (GoM) needed to know “where the hundreds of millions (in UMNO’s accounts) came from.”

Well and fair.

Hours ago, The Third Force published an article that took the wraps off a conspiracy involving the MACC to persecute Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz. In the article, I revealed that the MACC hinged its entire ‘discovery’ into a company Riza co-founded purely on a 20^th of July 2016 report by the United States (US) Department of Justice (DoJ). The report was prepared pursuant to terms contained in a controversial loophole that exists in American jurisprudence.

I added:

“Known as Civil Forfeitures, the loophole allows the DoJ to file forfeiture proceedings against any individual or company suspected of crime or illegal activity hinged solely on complaints filed by a third party. US law has it that for the complaints to be filed, the complainant must imply that the individual or company he (or she) is filing the complaints against committed wrongdoing on American soil. The law clearly states that the filing of any forfeiture proceedings is a civil matter and has nothing to do with a criminal conviction of any sort.”

Here itself, you can see that the DoJ report is based on conjecture and cannot be used as grounds to seek the freezing of bank accounts. But that’s precisely what the MACC did – a well-placed source revealed to The Third Force that the agency’s head, Dato’ Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull, told Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas that the accounts of over 800 companies and individuals needed to be frozen as those accounts were somehow tied to the wealth fund.

But how could that be?

How could it be that the account of Najib’s months-old grandson – which, incidentally, had only about RM100 at the time it was frozen – is linked to 1MDB? The same question applies to the freezing of other accounts belonging Najib’s and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s children and former spouses. Due to the freeze, Najib’s eldest daughter, Puteri Norlisa binti Najib, is facing a very difficult time footing her bills to treat the stage-four cancer she’s been diagnosed with.

For the freeze to have happened, Shukri would have had to submit a report to the AG stating in no uncertain terms the reason the MACC suspected Norlisa could have received 1MDB related funds. Tommy, in turn, would have had to study the report first before instructing Bank Negara to freeze her account. The fact that he issued such a directive goes a long way to show that he was satisfied with the MACC’s grounds for wanting to render her account inactive.

Well, what are those grounds?

Does the content of the 2016 DoJ report construe as legitimate grounds to freeze her account? Did Tommy actually read the report and see Norlisa’s name mentioned anywhere in it? Did the report state in no uncertain terms that Najib’s months-old grandson helped produce “The Wolf of Wall Street?” Is Tommy not aware, that the Civil Forfeitures Complaints filed by the DoJ was based purely on conjecture and not evidence obtained through legitimate means?

Can you now see why the MACC investigation into 1MDB is nothing but a multilayered conspiracy to criminalise both Najib and his family?