BELIEVE IT OR NOT
(Kecuali dua tajuk di atas semua penulisan di bawah adalah petikan dari Sarawak Report dan Wall Street Journal - Nampaknya kisah 1MDB ini terus memalukan negara Malaysia)
SWISS GO NUCLEAR - AG SAYS "US$4 BILLION WAS MISAPPROPRIATED FROM 1MDB"
In response to AG Apandi's clearance of PM Najib from wrongdoings involving RM2.6 billion so called 'donation', the Attorney General of Switzerland Michael Laubersaid refused 'to condone Apandi's whitewash attempt. The Sarawak Report of 30th January, 2016 read:
Well after normal office hours on Friday the Swiss Attorney General's Office detonated the diplomatic equivalent of a nuclear bomb under the attempts by Najib and his own Attorney General to bury the scandal around 1MDB.
Responding to the Malaysian AG Mohammed Apandi's surprise announcement this week that Najib had been "cleared" of any wrongdoing by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation, the Swiss Attorney General Michael Laubersaid has issued a media statement of possibly unprecedented bluntness from the traditionally low-profile Swiss authorities.
The devastating one page document, delivered in the form of a public request for Malaysia to assist in Switzerland's own criminal enquiries into 1MDB, has blown the whistle on the entire case and laid out in astonishing terms the key aspects of the Swiss investigation's findings so far.
In doing so, the Swiss Attorney General has substantiated each of the major allegations printed by Sarawak Reports and other investigators into 1MDB over the past year, since the original details from the dossiers of Swiss national Xavier Justo were first revealed by this news portal.
THE REPORT FURTHER SAID:
Explaining his 'request for mutual assistance' the Swiss AG has made several landmark revelations, confirming official concerns of corruption on an epic scale at 1MDB.
He has introduced a new figure of US$4 billion as the suspected as the suspected amount that his officials believe has been criminally misappropriated from the fund. A sum, which, he points out, was "earmarked for investment in economic and social projects in Malaysia."
"The sum suspected to have been misappropriated amounts to around US$4 billion ... So far it has been ascertained that a small portion of the money was transferred to accounts held in Switzerland by various former Malaysian public officials and both former and current public officials from the United Arab Emirates" (Press release by Swiss AG Michael Laubersaid)
In publishing this bold assertion the Swiss AG has shot out of the water months of twisting and turning by 1MDB and its new CEO Arul Kanda and his boss the Minister of Finance, as they have attempted to explain the billions missing from 1MDB.
ALL BUT NAMED!
The Swiss AG does not mince his words in pointing the finger at those he believes to be responsible for the shocking misappropriation or the crimes for which he believes they should be prosecuted.
On the list of people identified as responsisble are "foreign public officials" suspected of being bribed; "various former Malaysian Public Officials and both former and current publis officials from the United Arab Emirates."
He further reveals the criminal proceedings opened on 14th August 2015 against two former officials of the Malaysian state-owned fund 1MDB (1 Malaysia Development Berhad) and persons unknown" under a serios of Swiss laws, a proceeding which had not previously been publicized.
Sarawak report suggests that the individuals referred to by the Swiss AG under these categories are likely to include the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Jho Low, the former CEO of 1MDB Shahrol Halmi and the former Aabar fund chiefs Khadem al Qubaisi and his deputy Mohamed al Husseiny.
The above men have all been featured as key players in Sarawak Report's exposes on 1MDB and the crimes outlined by the Attorney General of which they are together or separately suspected are "bribery of foreign public officials, misconduct in public office; money laundering and criminal investigation."
The unrelenting and direct accusations leave the Prime Minister's claim at the start of the week that the allegations againsts 1MDB were an "unnecessary distraction" in tatters.
SWISS ARE INVESTIGATING ALL ASPECTS OF THE 1MDB SCANDAL.
The AG's statement also makes clear that far from limting their investigations the Swiss have extended their criminal enquiries into all the main aspects of the 1MDB financial scandal, as covered in recent Sarawak Report exposes. He mentions four main areas of shady operations, but indicates there may be more:
The fact that Swiss banks were dragged into almost every aspect of 1MDB's activities by the main perpetrators must indeed now stand as a point of considerable regret by them.
The issues referred to above by Laubersaid include the heist of a total of US$1.5 billion using Petrosaudi as a front company in 2009 as well as the series of massive bond deals conducted together with Aabar in 2012 supposedly to fund two power plant purchase deals by 1MDB. Huge sums have been recorded missing from that deal as well as a subsequent "Strategic Partnership" with Aabar in 2013, from which money has also disappeared.
The final reference to ADMIC shows that the Swiss are also looking into the money that was transferred by Jho Low from his Good Star company account in Zurich to his BSI Singapore account held under the name of ADMIC (Abu Dabhi Malaysia Investment Corporation).
BANKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Other players who are now faced with worrying questions to deal with in these investigations are all the major banks which facilitated these deals.
The Swiss private banks RBS Coutts Zurich, JP Morgan Zurich, BSI, Falcon Bank, and Bank Privee Edmond de Rothschilde Europe are all facing questions about the hundreds of millions processed through the accounts of these public officials and politically exposed persons.
Also likely to be highly concerned is the American giant Goldman Sachs. The main individual behild the 1MDB bond deals, their Singapore boss Tim Leissner was reported to have taken leave from the bank only last week. Sarawak Report has reported for months on the eyebrow raising sums paid to the bank in return for unusual and enormous bond deals raised for 1MDB.
MALAYSIA IS PUT ON THE SPOT
By going public in this brutal and highly unusual way the Swiss have made plain they want no more nonsense from Najib or his henchmen like Apandi.
Laubersaid makes yet another revelation in his jaw-dropping press release, which is that the Malaysian AG had met with his officials in September and promised full cooperation. That cooperation, he implies, is yet to be fulfilled on Apandi's part:
It means, in short, that what Apandi has said to the Malaysian public is not what he was saying in private and that his claims of there being no evidence to pursue charges against 1MDB are nonsence in the eyes of his European counterpart.
This letter refers to a "systematic course of action by means of complex financial structures" by the alleged perpetrators of the crimes against 1MDB and Laubersaid makes clear his impatience with the fact that despite this looting of billions from Malaysia's public companies "the Malaysian companies concerned have made no comment on the losses they are believed to have incurred."
The Swiss authority ends on a conciliatory note, explaining that given no Malaysian company has yet raised this issue of their massive losses the Swiss are offering their assistance to "advise the companies and the Malaysian government of the results of the Swiss criminal proceedings with the aim of finding out whether losses on this scale have been sustained."
WALL STREET JOURNAAL
Before the release of their media statement the AG and his officials also gave spoken comments to the Wall Street Journal, Laubersaid had tole the WSJ:
It was just hours later that he moved to action, making what may become a historic step in the fight to combat global money-laundering.
This weekend the beleaguered voices from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Bank of Malaysia and those others from the world of politics who have protested against a year of 1MDB cover-ups have found a powerful new ally from the international financial state.
ARTICLE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
ZURICH - Swiss authorities on Friday said they were concerned Malaysia had ended investigation into the transfer of nearly $700 million into Prime Minister Najib Razak's private bank account, saying the move could hinder their own probe where "strong evidence" has been found.
Earlier this week, the attorney general's office in Malaysia announced that the $681 million transferred in 2013 to Mr. Najib's account was a leal donation from Saudi Arabia's Royal Family, and cleared the prime minister of any wrong doing. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said subsequently it would seek a review of that decision.
The Swiss Office of the Attorney General, or OAG, has raised concerns over the handling of the case, saying it believes evidence it has gathered and is due to send to Malaysia won't be considered by its counterparts there.
Swiss authorities have been investigating individuals tied to Malaysia's 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, a public investment fund established by Mr. Najib in 2009 to encourage economic development in the country.
The future of the Swiss 1MDB probe, which has found evidence of suspicious transactions made through Swiss banks, is now uncertain.
The Swiss OAG said Friday it was disappointed with the decision of the Malaysian authorities, especially after an agreement between the two countries' Attorney General last year to support each other's investigation.
Mr. Lauber said that "strong evidence" had been collected so far, without elaborating.
1MDB PROBE: SINGAPORE SEIZES BANK ACCOUNTS
We are cooperating with M'sian, Swiss and US authorities, say republic's agencies
SINGAPORE: Singapore has seized a large number of bank accounts in recent months as part of an investigation into possible money-laundering linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB).
Reuters reports that the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department said Singapore is cooperating with authorities in Malaysia, Switzerland and the United States who are investigating 1MDB.
"In connection with these investigations, we have sought and are continuing to seek information from several financial institutions, are interviewing various individuals, and have seized a large number of bank accounts," the two agencies said in a joint statement.
The statement did not offer any further details. In July, local police said they had only frozen two bank accounts linked to the 1MDB probe.
The statement comes a week after Switzerland's chief prosecutor said a criminal investigation into 1MDB had revealed that abut US$4 billion appeared to have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies.
1MDB whose advisory board is chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, has been investigated by Malaysian authorities following accusations of financial mismanagement and graft. 1MDB has denied these allegations.
Last week, Malaysia's Attorney General cleared Najib of any criminal offences or corruption, declaring that US$681 million deposited into his personal bank account was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family and no further action needed to be taken.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been in touch with Malaysian regulators since last year, when Malaysia's government said 1MDB had redeemed US$1.1 billion from the Cayman Islands and placed it in the Singapore unit of Swiss private bank BSI.
BSI has declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that investigators had traced nearly US$700 million from an account at Falcon Private Bank in Singapore to accounts in Malaysia they believed belonged to the Prime Minister.
Falcon, a Swiss private bank owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company, has said it is in contact with Singapore's central bank and will cooperate with authorities.
Meanwhile, according to a Malaysiakini report, the Swiss embassy in Kuala Lumpur has declined to comment on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi's criticism of the Office of the AG of Switzerland (OAG) over its investigations in 1MDB. This is because the Swiss AG is an independent body.
According to OAG's website, the office is answerable to a supervisory authority appointed by Switzerland's legislative arm, the United Federal Assembly.
Ahmad Zahid had stated the Swiss AG should have used "official" channels to request assistance in its probe. By making a media statement, the deputy premier said it exposed the case to biases.
The OAG responded by saying it would not comment on political statements.
The above article is from the News Without Borders report on Tuesday February, 2, 2016 of the Malaysian newspaper "The Sun."
He further reveals the criminal proceedings opened on 14th August 2015 against two former officials of the Malaysian state-owned fund 1MDB (1 Malaysia Development Berhad) and persons unknown" under a serios of Swiss laws, a proceeding which had not previously been publicized.
Sarawak report suggests that the individuals referred to by the Swiss AG under these categories are likely to include the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Jho Low, the former CEO of 1MDB Shahrol Halmi and the former Aabar fund chiefs Khadem al Qubaisi and his deputy Mohamed al Husseiny.
The above men have all been featured as key players in Sarawak Report's exposes on 1MDB and the crimes outlined by the Attorney General of which they are together or separately suspected are "bribery of foreign public officials, misconduct in public office; money laundering and criminal investigation."
The unrelenting and direct accusations leave the Prime Minister's claim at the start of the week that the allegations againsts 1MDB were an "unnecessary distraction" in tatters.
SWISS ARE INVESTIGATING ALL ASPECTS OF THE 1MDB SCANDAL.
The AG's statement also makes clear that far from limting their investigations the Swiss have extended their criminal enquiries into all the main aspects of the 1MDB financial scandal, as covered in recent Sarawak Report exposes. He mentions four main areas of shady operations, but indicates there may be more:
"So far four cases involving allegations of criminal conduct and covering the period from 2009 to 2013 have come to light in this connection (relating to Petrosaudi, SRC, Genting/Tanjung and ADMIC."
The fact that Swiss banks were dragged into almost every aspect of 1MDB's activities by the main perpetrators must indeed now stand as a point of considerable regret by them.
The issues referred to above by Laubersaid include the heist of a total of US$1.5 billion using Petrosaudi as a front company in 2009 as well as the series of massive bond deals conducted together with Aabar in 2012 supposedly to fund two power plant purchase deals by 1MDB. Huge sums have been recorded missing from that deal as well as a subsequent "Strategic Partnership" with Aabar in 2013, from which money has also disappeared.
The final reference to ADMIC shows that the Swiss are also looking into the money that was transferred by Jho Low from his Good Star company account in Zurich to his BSI Singapore account held under the name of ADMIC (Abu Dabhi Malaysia Investment Corporation).
BANKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Other players who are now faced with worrying questions to deal with in these investigations are all the major banks which facilitated these deals.
The Swiss private banks RBS Coutts Zurich, JP Morgan Zurich, BSI, Falcon Bank, and Bank Privee Edmond de Rothschilde Europe are all facing questions about the hundreds of millions processed through the accounts of these public officials and politically exposed persons.
Also likely to be highly concerned is the American giant Goldman Sachs. The main individual behild the 1MDB bond deals, their Singapore boss Tim Leissner was reported to have taken leave from the bank only last week. Sarawak Report has reported for months on the eyebrow raising sums paid to the bank in return for unusual and enormous bond deals raised for 1MDB.
MALAYSIA IS PUT ON THE SPOT
By going public in this brutal and highly unusual way the Swiss have made plain they want no more nonsense from Najib or his henchmen like Apandi.
Laubersaid makes yet another revelation in his jaw-dropping press release, which is that the Malaysian AG had met with his officials in September and promised full cooperation. That cooperation, he implies, is yet to be fulfilled on Apandi's part:
"Cooperation between the two countries was already discussed at a meeting in Zurich on 15th September 2015 between Swiss Attorney General and his Malaysian counterpart. This request for mutual assistance now puts the agreement in principle that was reached into concrete terms."
It means, in short, that what Apandi has said to the Malaysian public is not what he was saying in private and that his claims of there being no evidence to pursue charges against 1MDB are nonsence in the eyes of his European counterpart.
This letter refers to a "systematic course of action by means of complex financial structures" by the alleged perpetrators of the crimes against 1MDB and Laubersaid makes clear his impatience with the fact that despite this looting of billions from Malaysia's public companies "the Malaysian companies concerned have made no comment on the losses they are believed to have incurred."
The Swiss authority ends on a conciliatory note, explaining that given no Malaysian company has yet raised this issue of their massive losses the Swiss are offering their assistance to "advise the companies and the Malaysian government of the results of the Swiss criminal proceedings with the aim of finding out whether losses on this scale have been sustained."
WALL STREET JOURNAAL
Before the release of their media statement the AG and his officials also gave spoken comments to the Wall Street Journal, Laubersaid had tole the WSJ:
"We are very concerned. We have found evidence of suspicious money transfers linked to 1MDB going through Swiss financial institutions, and we believe that is very important that it is share with the Malaysian authorities."
It was just hours later that he moved to action, making what may become a historic step in the fight to combat global money-laundering.
This weekend the beleaguered voices from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Bank of Malaysia and those others from the world of politics who have protested against a year of 1MDB cover-ups have found a powerful new ally from the international financial state.
ARTICLE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
ZURICH - Swiss authorities on Friday said they were concerned Malaysia had ended investigation into the transfer of nearly $700 million into Prime Minister Najib Razak's private bank account, saying the move could hinder their own probe where "strong evidence" has been found.
"We are very concerned," Swiss Attorney General Michael Laubersaid in a statement Friday to The Wall Street Journal. "We have found evidence of suspicious money transfers linked to 1MDB going through Swiss financial institutions, and we believe that it is very important that it is shared with the Malaysian authorities."
Earlier this week, the attorney general's office in Malaysia announced that the $681 million transferred in 2013 to Mr. Najib's account was a leal donation from Saudi Arabia's Royal Family, and cleared the prime minister of any wrong doing. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said subsequently it would seek a review of that decision.
The Swiss Office of the Attorney General, or OAG, has raised concerns over the handling of the case, saying it believes evidence it has gathered and is due to send to Malaysia won't be considered by its counterparts there.
"There appears to have been a sizeble fraud taking place here, and we believe (the case) should not be allowed to drop like this," said OAG spokesman Andre Marty. "Without assistance from Malaysia out investigation in Switzerland risks running into a dead-end."
Swiss authorities have been investigating individuals tied to Malaysia's 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, a public investment fund established by Mr. Najib in 2009 to encourage economic development in the country.
The future of the Swiss 1MDB probe, which has found evidence of suspicious transactions made through Swiss banks, is now uncertain.
The Swiss OAG said Friday it was disappointed with the decision of the Malaysian authorities, especially after an agreement between the two countries' Attorney General last year to support each other's investigation.
Mr. Lauber said that "strong evidence" had been collected so far, without elaborating.
1MDB PROBE: SINGAPORE SEIZES BANK ACCOUNTS
We are cooperating with M'sian, Swiss and US authorities, say republic's agencies
SINGAPORE: Singapore has seized a large number of bank accounts in recent months as part of an investigation into possible money-laundering linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB).
Reuters reports that the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department said Singapore is cooperating with authorities in Malaysia, Switzerland and the United States who are investigating 1MDB.
"In connection with these investigations, we have sought and are continuing to seek information from several financial institutions, are interviewing various individuals, and have seized a large number of bank accounts," the two agencies said in a joint statement.
The statement did not offer any further details. In July, local police said they had only frozen two bank accounts linked to the 1MDB probe.
The statement comes a week after Switzerland's chief prosecutor said a criminal investigation into 1MDB had revealed that abut US$4 billion appeared to have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies.
1MDB whose advisory board is chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, has been investigated by Malaysian authorities following accusations of financial mismanagement and graft. 1MDB has denied these allegations.
Last week, Malaysia's Attorney General cleared Najib of any criminal offences or corruption, declaring that US$681 million deposited into his personal bank account was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family and no further action needed to be taken.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been in touch with Malaysian regulators since last year, when Malaysia's government said 1MDB had redeemed US$1.1 billion from the Cayman Islands and placed it in the Singapore unit of Swiss private bank BSI.
BSI has declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that investigators had traced nearly US$700 million from an account at Falcon Private Bank in Singapore to accounts in Malaysia they believed belonged to the Prime Minister.
Falcon, a Swiss private bank owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company, has said it is in contact with Singapore's central bank and will cooperate with authorities.
Meanwhile, according to a Malaysiakini report, the Swiss embassy in Kuala Lumpur has declined to comment on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi's criticism of the Office of the AG of Switzerland (OAG) over its investigations in 1MDB. This is because the Swiss AG is an independent body.
"We can't comment because the OAG is independent from the government. The government also does not comment on criminal proceedings," the embassy representative told the online news portal.
According to OAG's website, the office is answerable to a supervisory authority appointed by Switzerland's legislative arm, the United Federal Assembly.
Ahmad Zahid had stated the Swiss AG should have used "official" channels to request assistance in its probe. By making a media statement, the deputy premier said it exposed the case to biases.
The OAG responded by saying it would not comment on political statements.
The above article is from the News Without Borders report on Tuesday February, 2, 2016 of the Malaysian newspaper "The Sun."
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