AMERICANS TO BEGIN 1MDB PROSECUTIONS SOON? OUT OF EMBARRASSMENT?

 

It has been almost EIGHT YEARS since the US Attorney General held that Press Conference in New York about the 1MDB scandal (on 20 July 2016).  If you sat for your SPM then you will be 25 years old now. If you were in your 50s you would be in your 60s now - like me.

July 2016 - The United States Department of Justice files a civil suit to seize assets it alleges were bought with funds stolen from 1MDB. The suit says $681m found its way into the personal account of ‘Malaysian Official 1’

But since then only one single culprit, an almost insignificant Goldman Sachs banker by the name of Roger Ng has been prosecuted by the US Attorney General and jailed in the USA. No other 1MDB prosecutions have taken place in the US despite Goldman Sachs playing such a huge role in the scandal. Goldman Sachs was the fence - they helped siphon and launder the money.

"Goldman in 2020 agreed to settle with the DoJ for US$2.9 billion and its Malaysian unit pleaded guilty to a corruption charge."

But now Netflix has produced a one hour movie / documentary about the 1MDB scandal. Here is some wording from someone (thank you) : 

Please do watch Netflix' "Man on the Run", about Jho Low, Najib and 1MDB. 

 https://youtu.be/wIXwu1aWnds?si=a_Horc0OCfOdsrsT

It's tightly edited, with great footage of interviews with Tommy Thomas, Tony Pua, Clare Rewcastle Brown, the Edge's Ho Kay Tat and most interestingly N...b himself, 4 months before he was convicted. We all lived through these events, but to see it compressed into this one hour was compelling viewing. There was a photo of where Kevin Morais' car had been set alight that I'd never seen before - a chilling message to people not to interfere with N...b and the powers that be. That our nation lived through this time when one by one governmental checks and balances were cut away, but that through the determination of ordinary people as well as former leaders, N...b and UMNO were finally unseated - it's a moving story. However again we see how only the Malaysian - Roger Ng - was imprisoned, while Tim Leissner and others remain scot free. R...ah is still hosting events in hotels!

Only the one crook Roger Ng has been prosecuted in the US. There is nothing like negative publicity to stir governments into action including the US government. 

"It seems 1MDB is a problem for Malaysia that will not be going away as US is gearing up to go after many people and businesses that took money from 1MDB"

(OSTB : Hello Malaysian media, why dont you find out who was the Malaysian VIP who introduced Goldman Sachs to the 1MDB goons? Someone must have been the middleman).

I think this new Netflix movie is doing just that. It is kicking up dust on those eight year old files in the US Attorney General's office again. Lets hope something moves. 

The timing could not be better. Because there is also this incessant talk that the present set of goons sitting on the can are pondering arranging a pardon for N...b this year. Some stupid scheme to ensure their own political survival, that they do not get flushed down the can.  

So N...b will walk free? Hello Chinese people, Indian people are you happy? Or are you very, very yappy? Is that your "reformasi"?

Do watch that Netflix movie.  

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