Riza gave up his assets to start anew, says Najib

Ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak would have preferred his stepson Riza Aziz to clear his name in court but understands why the latter settled for a plea bargain deal with the Attorney-General’s Chamber (AGC).

Najib said movie producer Riza had already lost five years of his life to the ordeal and that if the court case were to go on, it might take another four years, so the movie producer decided to “hand over all his assets” so he could start his life anew.

“If you ask me, I would have preferred Riza to continue the process in court. If he continued the process in court, the real facts would have surfaced.

“For Riza, he has faced this ordeal for five years where he could not start any new business and if the court case were to go on, it might eat up another four years.

“So 10 years, a decade of his life, he cannot do anything. So he said, ‘it’s okay, I will hand over all these assets in the settlement. I want my freedom for me to restart my life.’

“That is his wish. All right, it’s okay. He gave up, you could say, all his assets as long as he got his freedom. It is okay that he has to start his life from scratch, as long as he gets the chance to restart his life,” Najib said in an interview with The Outlook livestreamed on his Facebook page last night.

On May 14, Riza was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) over five money laundering charges, subject to him fulfilling the terms of an agreement with the prosecution to return to the government millions of ringgit.

Najib claimed that some of the facts which would have surfaced in court had Riza’s case gone on would reveal that his stepson was not charged for stealing money.

Even the US Department of Justice (DOJ) did not charge Riza for misappropriation of money, he stressed.

Instead, Riza was charged under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) for receiving money which turned out to be related to 1MDB, though he purportedly did not know it at the time, Najib said.

“He received the money because he received an investment from Aabar… which was instructed by the United Arab Emirates royal family who said they wanted to invest in his movie productions.

“Aabar is a company with an AAA credit rating, so when he received the money from Aabar, he thought it really was money from Aabar and the banks did not warn him or raise any red flags to him that this money is related to 1MDB or anything.

“So as far as Riza was concerned, this was Aabar’s money and no one told him otherwise, so he received it in good faith,” Najib said.

Aabar Investments PJS is a subsidiary of International Petroleum International Company (IPIC).

However, part of the funds which were transferred to Riza’s production company Red Granite Productions Inc came from an account belonging to a company with a similar name, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, while the rest of the funds came from Good Star Ltd.

Aabar Investments PJS Ltd is a company incorporated by Low Taek Jho, popularly known as Jho Low, and his associates in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Jho Low is also the sole beneficiary of Good Star Ltd.

Riza bought 'all sorts of assets' with movie earnings

When Riza’s movies like Wolf Of Wall Street went on to make big earnings at the box-office, Najib said his stepson then bought all sorts of assets with the earnings.

Najib further explained that when Riza realised the funds he received may be “tainted” money, the latter had said he was willing to surrender all his assets to resolve the case.

He said the MACC and then attorney-general Tommy Thomas knew that the case would be a difficult one as the transactions all happened overseas and the government might lose the case if it went to trial and also it was likely that the asset recovery might take a long time.

The MACC had said as part of the plea bargain with Riza, the Malaysian government will see the return of US$107.3 million (RM465.3 million) in overseas assets.

“The MACC is satisfied because they got the assets much earlier in a process which might have taken a long time.

“At that time, it is true that the then attorney-general had agreed (to the deal) in principle.

“But if he wants to say otherwise and he thinks he was an attorney-general for Pakatan Harapan, that is not true. Actually, he is the attorney-general for the country, not for Harapan,” Najib said.

Responding to a question that there is a perspective that Riza was granted his DNAA due to the change in government, Najib said the MACC itself has already said the process was started during Thomas’ time as attorney-general.

“Thomas already agreed in principle but he did not manage to finalise the decision… he did not object or stop (the deal),” Najib said.

Thomas has since said several times that any implications that he had agreed to the settlement deal with Riza were “lies”. - Mkini