MACC alerts Interpol on arrest warrants against Jho Low, PetroSaudi execs

The MACC has alerted Interpol of its arrest warrants for Jho Low, Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony.

This comes after the anti-graft body filed a charge against the trio in absentia yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates Court for a US$69 million (RM285.45 million based on current exchange rates) 1MDB money laundering case.

Chief commissioner Latheefa Koya announced this when door-stopped by the media this morning.

"This is part of our ongoing recovery-cum- investigation on 1MDB and SRC International [...]

"This is part of that process where we are charging those people who may have access to details of those monies," she said, adding that MACC will formally release more details on the charges soon.

This is the second arrest warrant issued for Low. He is alleged to be the mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal.

Obaid and Mahony were formerly directors at Petrosaudi International Limited (PSI).

“This is a case of [...] criminal conspiracy to abet laundering money (amounting to) US$69 million,” Latheefa said about the fresh case.

In a statement afterwards, the MACC said it had filed two charges against the trio - one under the Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA) and another under Section 28(1) of the MACC Act 2009.

For the AMLA charge, it said that the trio had on Sept 20, 2009, involved themselves in money laundering when they received money into the 1MDB-Petrosaudi account from a 1MDB account.

“Low, Obaid and Mahoney had on Feb 24, 2011, conspired together in a criminal conspiracy with Najib Abdul Razak to use his (Najib’s) position to benefit from bribes,” it said for MACC Act charge.

Low, Obaid (full name Tarik Essam Ahmad Obaid) and Mahony (full name Patrick Andrew Marc Mahony) were not listed on Interpol’s red notices database at the time of writing. - Mkini