Najib Razak's Trial
The trial of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rajak has been underway for some weeks. As has been stated earliers, the trial involves the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysian Development Bhd. (1MDB) set up by Najib in 2009. Its aim was simple: to make Kuala Lumpur a world financial centre and to fund major infrastructure projects throughout the country. As has become obvious, at least part of the reason was to create a piggy bank into which Najib and his relatives could extract vast amounts of state cash. Several banks in Malaysia, Singapore and the USA were tapped to raise finds for 1MDB, including Goldman Sachs. Several banks have now been censured, two have ceased trading in Singapore and 17 former Goldman executives and a former CEO are now facing criminal charges initiated by The US Department of Justice and the Malaysian government. The Department has called the 1MDB scandal “fraud on an enormous scale.”
Readers will recall that in 2015 an unexplained amount of more than US$700 million was discovered in one of Najib’s bank accounts. Najib explained that these were donations from a Middle East country and intended to be transferred to the government to fight terrorism. After an investigation the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission confirmed that lie. Thereafter Najib sacked his Deputy, the Attorney General and disbanded the Anti-Corruption Commission. But every action got him deeper into trouble, When he lost the 2018 General Election to an unlikely coalition formed by his once mentor and Prime Minster for 20 years, Mahatir Mohamad, and Mahatir’s once former protégé whom he had turned on and jailed on trumped up sodomy charges, Anwar Ibrahim. Najib’s house of cards came tumbling down.
Najib was soon charged with six counts of criminal breach of trust involving government funds of $1.58 billion. This is in addition to 32 other money-laundering charges relating to 1MDB. If found guilty, he will spend the rest of his life in jail. In raids on his homes, Malaysian police seized 285 of the most expensive luxury handbags – mostly Hermes Birkin bags each costing between US$12,000 and $300,000 - and 72 bags of cash, jewellery including a $23 million pink diamond, luxury watches and other valuables belonging to Najib’s wife. The government has also frozen more than 400 bank accounts as part of the 1MDB probe. 1MDB’s latest reported deficit is $11 billion of which $4.5 billion is missing.
Now that the trial is underway, one other figure features prominently in this tale of greed on a massive scale. Born into a wealthy Penang Chinese-Malay family, Low Taek Jho, most commonly referred to as Jho Low, is a graduate of the Wharton School in the USA. On his return to Malaysia, he set himself up an investment banker who soon became the steward of Jynwel Capital, the name given to the consolidated fortune of his family, as well as several other companies. He then cultivated relationships with some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. Some of its projects were successful, as with his takeover along with associates of New York’s Park Lane Hotel (formerly run by the notorious Leona Helmsley) for US$660. Others failed, like the proposed $2.2 billion bid to buy Reebok from Adidas.
Low’s connection to the disgraced former Prime Minster goes back to his time as a schoolboy at Harrow, one of England’s most prestigious public schools. He became friends with Riza Aziz who was studying at London School of Economics and later worked with HSBC. Aziz is Najib Rajak’s stepson. Low cultivated the relationship, aware not only that Najib was very senior in the government but that he was earmarked for the Premiership. After all, his father and uncle had been the country’s second and third Prime Ministers.
As the 1MDB scandal unfolded, Riza Aziz became known as the founder of Red Granite Pictures which produced Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie
The Wolf of Wall Street, at the same time showering the star with expensive gifts, including a $3.2 million Picasso painting, a Diane Arbus photograph worth $750,000 and the Oscar that had been awarded to Marlon Brando for his performance in
On The Waterfront. (DiCaprio has since turned all the gifts over to the US Department of Justice). The US Department of Justice found that Red Granite Pictures misappropriated over $100 million of 1MDB funds and later paid over $60 million to settle the claims.
One mistake Riza made was to return to Malaysia. On July 4 this year he was arrested on his arrival charged with five counts of money-laundering from Good Star Ltd., a company linked to his friend Jho Low. If found guilty, he faces up to 25 years in jail. Jho Low has been more astute. He faces mounting charges in Malaysia but has gone to ground. Even with an Interpol warrant out for his arrest, he cannot be found. He is thought to be living somewhere in China.
It is clear that Low was Najib’s fixer. Indeed, more than one Report claims that Low masterminded the entire 1MDB affair. In court last month, one means by which Najib stole from 1MDB was revealed. Najib’s main bank was AmBank. Its customer relationship manager was Joanna Yu Ging Ping.
In BlackBerry Messenger chats between Yu and Low . . . Low served as interlocutor for Najib, asking Yu which account “OP” should use to issue a 10 million ringgit (US$2.4 million) cheque or asking her to tell the bank manager that “OP” would close his accounts when they were flagged after being overdrawn by huge amounts.
“OP” was Low’s shorthand for Najib, referring to the character in the
Transformers franchise named Optimus Prime. That illustrates more than a hint of cynicism for Optimus Prime is the leader of the good Autobots! With Najib’s accounts often in the red, Yu was asked by lawyers why she went to great lengths to ensure Najib’s checks did not bounce.
“it was the prime minister’s accounts. It would have been an embarrassment if his cheques bounced.”
Yu even confirmed that she sometimes used her own money to “top up” Najib’s overdrawn accounts, adding that the money would usually be repaid the following day.
Najib was not the only one with a code name. The court heard that Jho Low referred to himself as “FL”, short for “fei lou” or “fat boy” in Cantonese.
Before the election forced Najib out of office, he made one last effort to wipe out 1MDB’s debts virtually at a stroke. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Najib arranged a meeting with China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). This was attended by Low representing Najib. Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, a former aide to Najib, attended as a witness.
The US$20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a major part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, was among the projects offered to SASAC, Amhari said. The Trans-Sabah gas pipeline, a Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok high-speed rail and the development of offshore financial hub Labuan were also tabled at the meeting, he said.
Amhari also told the court that his talking points for the meeting were prepared by Jho Low. Amhari added he believed “Najib had knowledge of and had given the mandate to Jho Low to plan and manage efforts to bail out 1MDB . . . from its losses and debts.”
The new government claims that the cost of these projects was grossly inflated merely to cover 1MDB’s shortfall. The pipeline project was quickly cancelled and the cost of the East Coast rail project reduced to $11 billion. The high-speed rail between KL and Singapore was killed.
Amhari also informed the court that Low convinced him and another of Najib’s former aides to open bank accounts with BSI Bank in Singapore and Kasikorn Bank in Bangkok that were meant to be “standby accounts” for Najib’s political funds for the upcoming General Election. Neither aide was permitted withdrawal rights to the accounts.
The trial continues.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/25/former- ... arges.html
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... er-1224799
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeas ... as-optimus
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeas ... -boss-will