1. The Edge asks 'How much did Zeti know?' The question is 'How much more does The Edge know?' 2. 1MDB was "protected" by our 'Libel Laws'.

 

Well folks, it seems like the 1MDB scandal is not fully over. There are actually a few 'scandals' associated with the 1MDB. 

The company names are different but the main characters involved appear to be the same. I think Super Moron and wife are "greedy-pigs" who turned up a little later to feed at the trough. Other pigs were already feeding much earlier.

Super Moron became PM on April 3rd 2009. By that time many of the important components that would blow up later as the 1MDB scandal were already in place. The most important components were of course the crooks who were involved. The crooks were already in place - long before Moron became the Prime Minister on April 3rd, 2009. 

The roots of the 1MDB scandal go back to the Terengganu Investment Authority.  The RM5 billion TIA bonds scandal was a sort of "trial run" for the 1MDB scandal. 

And before the TIA scandal, there was even a "Khazanah Nasional land flip" scandal in May 2008 - a pre-cursor even to the TIA scandal. And of course JoLo was also involved in the "Khazanah Nasional land flip" scandal - at the age of 27 in 2008 where he ripped off RM400 million.

Last nite (8 March 2021) The Edge re-ran the following story. I am reproducing it here in full.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/how-much-did-zeti-know-about-husbands-bank-account-singapore

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on March 1, 2021 - March 07, 2021.

How much did Zeti know about husband’s bank account in Singapore?

HOW much did Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz know about the bank account in Singapore that belonged to her husband Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman?

Probably quite a bit.

According to documents and correspondences sighted by The Edge, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police Force had in 2015 and 2016 shared information with Bank Negara Malaysia about suspicious transactions involving Iron Rhapsody Ltd, which had a bank account at UBS in Singapore.

Tawfiq and a son are beneficial owners of Iron Rhapsody, according to CAD.

In reply to a query, Bank Negara said it was unable to respond, as it was “bound by the international protocol for sharing of financial intelligence”.

The Edge also emailed a question to Zeti but, as at press time, had not received a reply.

Zeti was still Bank Negara governor in 2015 and retired only in April 2016.

The bank account by itself was not the issue.

It was several inflows of money into that account that triggered the suspicious transaction report (STR) alerts. These transactions took place in 2008 and 2009 and the STR alerts were flagged to Bank Negara only in 2015 and 2016 by CAD, after investigators there, together with those in Malaysia, Switzerland and the US, launched probes into the theft and laundering of billions of dollars that belonged to 1MDB.

The probes were triggered by exposés published from March 2015 by The Edge, Sarawak Report and The Wall Street Journal. 

(OSTB : Err...I first wrote about 1MDB in this Blog in 2010 or earlier)

Documents shared by Singapore’s CAD with Malaysian investigators showed that Iron Rhapsody received a total of US$16.22 million from companies/bank accounts of Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low:

1)    June 18, 2008: US$7.42 million from Butamba Investments Ltd’s bank account at RBS Coutts Singapore. Jho Low is the beneficial owner of Butamba Investments, which was involved in a May 2008 RM3 billion land deal with Khazanah Nasional Iskandar Malaysia (see The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1057, March 9 to 15, 2015: “How Jho Low made RM400 million by quick flip of Iskandar land deal”);

(OSTB : The PM and Finance Minister in May 2008 was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The Police who are investigating this case should bear this in mind very carefully.)

2)    May 21, 2009: US$0.732 million was received from Jho Low’s US law firm Shearman & Sterling’s account in Citibank in the US. The US Department of Justice has named Shearman as a firm that Jho Low used to launder money stolen from 1MDB;

3)    June 1, 2009: US$0.567 million from Acme Time Ltd’s account at RBS Coutts Singapore. Jho Low is the beneficial owner of AcmeTime;

4)    Dec 17, 2009: US$6.25 million was received from Jho Low’s US law firm Shearman & Sterling’s account in Citibank in the US; and

5)    Dec 18, 2009: US$1.25 million was received from Asset Central Holdings Ltd’s account at RBS Coutts, Singapore. Jho Low is the beneficial owner of Asset Central.

Singapore CAD has confirmed that the source of the money in transactions 2, 3, 4, 5 originated from profits made by Jho Low and cohorts from the flipping of the RM5 billion 1MDB/TIA (Terengganu Investment Authority) bonds arranged by AmBank in May 2009.

Jho Low and others, via Aktis Capital Pte Ltd, Acme Time and Country Group Private Securities Ltd, made more than RM600 million in profits from the flipping of the 1MDB bonds.

Aside from the above dealings between Tawfiq Ayman and Jho Low, the two were also believed to be partners in a company that Jho Low set up in July 2007, called Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corp (ADKMIC) (see The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1071, June 15 to 21, 2015: “Jho Low plays puppet master to 1MDB to get billions for his deals”.)

(OSTB : In July 2007 the PM and Finance Minister was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The Police who are investigating this case should bear this in mind very carefully.)

Documents sighted by The Edge showed that the BSI banker Yak Yew Chee — who was jailed in Singapore for abetting Jho Low in 1MDB-related criminal transactions — had told CAD that “when ADKMIC was incorporated (July 17, 2007), there were six to seven shareholders, including Jho Low and Datuk (Tawfiq) Ayman — husband of Dr Zeti, governor of Bank Negara”.

CAD investigations also found that, between June 2011 to September 2013, a total of US$153 million was transferred to ADKMIC’s bank account in RBS Coutts Singapore from Good Star Ltd’s bank account in RBS Coutts, Switzerland.

Good Star is owned by Jho Low and had, in September 2009, illegally received US$700 million from 1MDB. The US$700 million came from the RM5 billion bonds that 1MDB issued in May 2009 with the help of AmBank.

(OSTB : The RM5 billion TIA bonds were issued in May 2009. Abdullah Badawi resigned as PM just the month before, on April 2, 2009. Certainly the process of negotiating and issuing the RM5 billion bonds would have begun during the time of Abdullah Badawi as PM and Finance Minister. The Police who are investigating this case should bear this in mind very carefully).

The government-guaranteed bonds paid a hefty coupon of 5.75% and were sold at a discount by AmBank to Jho Low and collaborators via companies in Singapore and Bangkok and then immediately flipped to institutional investors in Malaysia for a profit estimated at more than RM600 million (see The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1271, June 17 to 23, 2019: “Two Malaysians, besides Jho Low, benefited from 1MDB bond flip”).

End of The Edge report.

The question is 'How much more does The Edge know?'

For a certainty The Edge knows more than what has been published. And they cannot publish everything they know. However The Edge is giving serious hints and clues by referring to their own previous articles on the matter:

i. The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1057, March 9 to 15, 2015: “How Jho Low made RM400 million by quick flip of Iskandar land deal”)

ii. The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1071, June 15 to 21, 2015: “Jho Low plays puppet master to 1MDB to get billions for his deals”.

iii. The Edge Malaysia, Issue 1271, June 17 to 23, 2019: “Two Malaysians, besides Jho Low, benefited from 1MDB bond flip”

I hope the Police investigation team will read this article by The Edge as well as all those three earlier articles listed above and more. Much, much more.

Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corp (ABKMIC)? What the hell was that? Who are all the parties, proxies, nominees behind ADKMIC? Were they all Abu Dhabians? How many were Malaysians who flew to Abu Dhabi to register companies there?

If there was one company called ADMKIC, surely there could be other such companies in Abu Dhabi, Dubai etc set up for the same purposes. Do not dismiss this possibility. And as I said, the company names may be different but the parties behind those companies are likely the same people. 

Ok here are some soalan cepu mas:

i.  The Khazanah Nasional land flip scandal, was linked closely with JoLo's purchase of a stake in Utama Banking Group when he was only 26 years old !! The Prime Minister and Finance Minister at that relevant time was Abdullah Badawi.  How could a 26 year old punk be "invited" to bid for a stake in a bank license in Malaysia without the approval of the Minister of Finance? 

ii. How could the same punk be sold a slice of land in Iskandar by Khazanah Nasional (which comes under the purview of the Minister of Finance) and then allowed to make an instant land flip profit of RM400 million? Most certainly there was a collusion between people across many sides of the table.  

If JoLo could calculate the real market value of the land and make a profit of RM400 million, surely Khazanah Nasional could also calculate the same profit. Jangan jadi bodoh ok - even the Kampong Baru people in Kuala Lumpur know that their land is located less than 1km from the KLCC, it should be worth RM2000 psf or more. So are you telling me that Khazanah Nasional "tak tahu kira" the market value of the Iskandar land? 

So who was involved in 'approving' that deal? The PM and Minister of Finance at that time was Abdullah Badawi.

iii.  Who brought Goldman Sachs into the 1MDB picture? Those are Wall Street thieves of the worst kind. Looking at all the reporting on the 1MDB scandal the link between JoLo and Goldman Sachs pops up quite late. The Americans intercepted chats between JoLo and Tim Leissner (of Goldman Sachs) in 2014. But Goldman Sachs was already on the scene long before that. So who introduced Goldman Sachs into the 1MDB deal? 

iv. Likewise who introduced JoLo to the Terengganu Investment Authority? How did JoLo get appointed as an Advisor to the Terengganu Investment Authority circa 2008?  Obviously the Menteri Besar at that time Ahmad Said and the Sultan were not too thrilled at JoLo's 'advice'.  The Prime Minister and Finance Minister at that time was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. 

In Malaysia you follow the people. When you find the people, then you will find the money.  

2. 1MDB was "protected" by our Libel Laws.

To sidetrack a little the Federal Court has moved closer to doing the right thing about libel and slander.

• PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): Federal Court ruled Thurs (March 4) 
• political parties cannot sue individuals for defamation
• Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf, chaired seven-member bench
• The question was whether a political party could maintain a suit for defamation 
• political parties cannot be claimants in defamation suits.
• government and political parties ..have no reputation.
• law of defamation protects reputation of persons

– Bernama

This is a good judgement by the Federal Court but I do not agree with their reasoning.

Political parties, registered societies, have no reputation bla bla bla does not sound too right. Then what about companies? Companies are also registered - with the Registrar of Companies or RoC. They are recognised as legal entities and they can sue and be sued.

I have written about this many times now. We should amend our libel and slander laws to define "public personalities". 

All societies, including political parties are populated by human beings. It is human beings who can sue or be sued for libel and slander.

And public personalities, especially members of political parties, should not be allowed to sue anyone for libel or slander. Period.

The politicians can take over a country's entire financial resources. Our tax collection is RM144 Billion. Our annual Budget is RM323 billion. All this is under the care of the politicians. The life of the citizenry is in the hands of the politicians. The citizens should be allowed to say anything they want about the politicians - without fear of the libel and slander laws. Politicians should not be allowed to sue anyone for slander or libel. Period.

I have said this before and I will say it again : the two biggest threats to the security and well being of this country Malaysia are the dinosaur age Libel Laws and the Sedition Act. 

Just look at the 1MDB scandal. It has cost the country tens of billions of Ringgit. 

Bloggers like me and media outfits like The Edge went to great risks to expose the 1MDB scandal. The only reason I did not get into trouble was because I knew the right people (at that time). I had "protection". 

If our Libel Laws had not been so old fashioned and stone age, if the Federal Court had made this decision say in 2008, then perhaps the Bloggers and the other media could have blown the 1MDB scandal right out of the water from Day 1. It may not even have happened.  But the media and the Bloggers are held by the neck by the libel and slander laws in this country.

Even now if the libel laws are amended, I am sure much more information will be exposed about not just this scandal but other scandals as well which will lead to public scrutiny and more action taken by the law. This is why we need the freedom to speak. 

Our country suffers corruption at pandemic levels. Corruption is a culture. And the corrupt can take advantage of the libel laws. They can hide behind the libel laws and continue stealing our money. This is what happened with the 1MDB scandal. 

Our old fashioned libel laws are costing us plenty. 

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.