With thanks to E.S. Shankar
Showing posts with label 1MDB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1MDB. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Tuesday, 8 May 2018
ARUL KANDA'S TALK ON 1MDB - LUCKY GARDEN BANGSAR, 7TH MAY 2018
By a guy who attended it (source FB)
To cut the long story short:
If you subscribe to the narrative given by Tony Pua or Rafizi Ramli, I have good news for you:
What Arul Kanda said tonight, neither disproves or debunks the narrative from Pakatan Harapan.
So are Tony Pua and Rafizi telling the truth? I don't know about that. But what was telling was the lack of effort from Arul to even convince the audience in Lucky Garden tonight not to believe the allegations thrown by PH leaders at 1MDB.
And to me, that was the biggest disappointment of the evening.
I came to the talk tonight with high hopes. Call me an idealist, call me a romantic. Time has thought me that there is always two sides to a story, and the only fair thing is to listen to both sides before coming to a judgment.
Arul Kanda has the reputation of an excellent debater. Even 20 years ago back when I was in MCKK, the legend of Arul Kanda the extraordinary debater from the Royal Military College filled the imaginations of wannabe debaters, along with the homegrown legend like Rafizi himself and also Saifuddin Abdullah from the Class of 1980 (now the Secretary General of Pakatan Harapan)
Tonight, his legend status preceded him. I wanted to be convinced. I wanted to me wowwed. I wanted to have that spark in my mind saying "Hey, this dude does make sense"
And i walked away from the talk. Disappointed.
There were 4 main things from tonight's event that sealed my judgment on 1MDB.
ONE - Arul Kanda went to great lengths to explain the reporting structure on 1MDB, and how NTR was not involved in any way in influencing the decision making within 1MDB.
The funny thing was, he placed the blame of all the bad decisions made within the company on the management and also of the Board of Directors, conveniently leaving out the roles played by its Board of Advisors of which Najib is the Chairman, and also the roles of the sole owner of 1MDB which are MOF Inc, which minister is also Najib himself.
Convenient Arul. But not smart.
TWO - He placed the blame squarely on the management and on the BOD for making all those bad decisions, calling those as 'business errors' and absolving himself from any blame.
Funny again, for a company supposedly managed by the brightest Malaysia had to offer, they were making massive decisions worth billions of dollars without consulting and without the approval of the Board. Even penny stock companies on Bursa Malaysia would know that this is wrong. How come the brightest in 1MDB had the temerity and audacity to act in that wrongful manner, which in normal companies will earn you a quick removal from the job?
Nope. No explanation from Arul.
THREE - He stated and agreed with the findings of the PAC that the 1MDB business model was wrong which ultimately led the company into cashflow problems due to heavy borrowing and high debt repayments required.
Funny as well, since from day one of 1MDB it had that seemingly flawed business model in place. None of the brightest stood up, the BOD stayed silent, even more so Board of Advisers chaired by Najib.
It was never a viable venture to begin with. And for many years nobody voiced out against this business model, until it is already too late.
Thanks Arul for agreeing with this point. Which in hindsight is really dumb to have happened to a company transacting in of billions of dollars, mostly in debt.
FOUR - Arul skirted around the Auditor General's Report on 1MDB, which is still being kept hostage by the Official Secrets Act. "Download the PAC report" he said too many times tonight, never responding to calls to release the AG report.
Something you want to be kept hidden, Arul?
I walked away feeling disappointed. I didn't even wait for the Q&A to start.
The thing is, I somewhat felt pity for Arul. He was there with a mic in his hands and PowerPoint slides to back him up, but I got the feeling that he was just going through the motions, like the story has already been scripted. "Believe me if you want to, I don't care if you dont". And from his talk today, Arul was just there giving a talk - he didnt bother to convince, he didn't bother to connect with this audience to get them to see things from the way he sees it.
Which to me is very telling.
I would wager a reason for this. For he himself does not believe in the bullshit that he is peddling.
Apatah lagi rakyat Malaysia.
So I end with the same conclusion that I started with.
I was waiting to be convinced straight from the horse's mouth. If there was somebody who should be able to sell me the 'real' story of 1MDB, it should have been Arul Kanda Kandasamy, debater extraordinaire.
But that didn't happen.
Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli can rest easy.
Friday, 16 March 2018
Swiss parliament rejects call to return 1MDB profits to Malaysia
Reuters
Reuters / 10:25pm AEDT
ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's parliament rejected on Thursday a bid to amend the law handling ill-gotten bank profits seized by authorities that had aimed to return more than $100 million linked to scandal-hit sovereign fund 1MDB to the Malaysian people.
Swiss parliament rejects call to return 1MDB profits to Malaysia
Swiss parliament rejects call to return 1MDB profits to Malaysia
Champions of the campaign had acknowledged they faced an uphill struggle to get the idea through parliament, whose lower house shot the plan down at the request of the government.
Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told lawmakers the measure was too broad and violated the separation of powers between the government and the courts. He said current law allowed repatriation of assets seized from toppled regimes.
He cited an accord signed with the World Bank in December under which Switzerland would return to Nigeria about $321 million in assets seized from the family of former military ruler Sani Abacha.
Confiscated bank profits from dubious deals are a different story. Normally they flow into the general Swiss budget.
The Swiss campaign led by center-left politician Carlo Sommaruga and non-governmental organizations wanted to hand back more than $100 million money forfeited by Swiss banks in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case.
A total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated by high-level officials of the fund and their associates, according to civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The scandal has triggered money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including Switzerland, the United States and Singapore.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up 1MDB in 2009 and previously served as chairman of its advisory board. He and the fund have denied any wrongdoing.
Financial watchdog FINMA has confiscated 104 million Swiss francs ($110 million) in illicit profits from 1MDB-related deals by banks BSI, Falcon Private Bank and Coutts & Co since mid-2016. The BSI and Falcon cases are still under appeal.
1MDB said on Wednesday the 104 million francs is being claimed by banks whom FINMA targeted for alleged breach of Swiss laws. "It cannot be claimed by 1MDB or the government of Malaysia as the money does not belong to 1MDB," it said.
Activists had said Switzerland could set an international precedent on how to handle confiscated assets from the 1MDB scandal, such as a luxury yacht seized in Bali last month that Indonesia is handing over to U.S. authorities. [nL4N1QQ2AM]
($1 = 0.9451 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Edmund Blair)
Saturday, 10 March 2018
Monday, 5 March 2018
Stop asking why...just get them out!
There have been many questions asked as to why this BN government has done nothing to try and get back properties, "investments", planes, money deposited in bank accounts all over the world, Hermes Bags and RM25 million diamond ring etc etc that, in all probability, can be traced back to 1MDB.
And this latest of seizure of Equanimity by the Indonesian Government on the advise/instruction or order (strike which one you think is not appropriate to be used in these circumstances) of the United States Department of Justice...is the creme de la creme of things that have been bought with 1MDB's money. After all when there are billions more of 1MDB stashed away in your possession, who does not want a yacht like Equanimity?
Let us just back off for a minute and think!
Do any of you seriously think that this BN government cares about Equanimity? Do you think anybody in this BN government care about the hundreds of millions here and there of 1MDB's money waiting to be claimed? Do you think that the Idiot will instruct his despicable and corrupt AG to get the "lick my arse" IGP, the fornicating KP of MACC, the "yes Sir, yes Sir three bags full" judiciary and that "head in his arse" Irwan Serigar...to go and get back what they all have all jointly and severally colluded to steal from us?
How many thieves have stood up in court with hand on their heart and solemly sworned... "Yes your Honour.... on the night of the 25th July last year, at 3.30 am, I did enter the said premises and stole everything I could find in the said premises.....including even the underwear and shirt off the back of the owners!"
All that these bastards are doing today is to think where the next hundreds of millions can be siphoned out of our national coffers to enable them to buy another Equanimity, invest in another Hollywood block buster, buy another mansion in Dubai, London, New York or Perth, get another Hermes bag or another "whatever their hearts desires!".
Please lah....stop asking all these stupid questions about why this corrupt BN government is not f**king itself up...just vote them out of office!!!!!!
Wednesday, 28 February 2018
JOW LOH, 1MDB, EQUANIMITY, BALI AND IMDB
First the "big time" Hollywood producer had his wings clipped. From hobnobbing with the likes of Leonardo de Caprio and the Hollywood set, Riza Aziz is now hiding behind the skirt of big fat mama. Nowadays Riza uses diapers ....not on his head....but under his trousers because he is scared shitless that the US DOJ will swoop down upon him and take him away the same way they did with Osama Ben Ladin. So most of his days are spent not hiding behind the skirt of Big Mama but hiding UNDER the skirt of Big Mama. There is room under Big Mama's skirt for a Bean Bag and cable TV to keep Riza from getting bored.
Riza dares not show up in his multi million pad in New York, London or anywhere else where he has spend OUR money to buy properties for himself and for his mama aka Flying Hippo. The only reason he is not in remand or under arrest is because Najib is still prime minister of Malaysia. When Najib goes, Riza goes in....either Sugai Buloh or some holding cell under the care of the Department of Justice of the United States. Long story short...Riza Aziz sudah mampus.
Now it is Jho Low's turn. The jet setting billionaire lifestyle he has been living these last few years is now entering what the Chinese say is the "die standing" stage. And like that pondon Idiot who kepit his balls, this roly poly Joh Low is just a mass of protoplasm and he too cannot run. He can waddle like a duck, and, like the Flying Hippo, is most comfortable in water. On dry ground, his movements are somewhat ungraceful, to say the least.
Take Equanimity away from him and what do you have? A fat slob whose days of tripping the light fantastic is over. And once they slip the cuffs on him....not Paris Hilton, not Miranda Kerr nor any of those money grabbing money loving ladies will have any time for him anymore.
I am still waiting for news as to whether they have him in custody abroad the ship...or they have him in remand somewhere in one of the cells in Indonesia or in parts unknown. Or maybe the US DOJ is already flying him back to the US for, after all, he is a person of interest to them in their attempts to get to the bottom what happened in 1MDB.
As for PDRM they have had problems trying to locate Jho Low. You cannot blame PDRM because even if Jho Low is fat, there are a few billion people on this earth and the fatso can be anywhere.
So what is PDRM excuse for not locating the Yacht? A friend of mine in K Hell said "PDRM tak tau nak sebut E Q U A N I M I T Y....so how to ask people if they have seen the yacht?"
Maybe Joh Low evaded capture and is now swimming to Batam....as for Mr and Mrs Idiot they must be shitting bricks thinking of what is now happening in Bali.....
NEWS
Indonesia, FBI seize Jho Low's yacht Equanimity in Bali
Indonesia on Wednesday seized a luxury yacht on the island of Bali sought by the US Department of Justice as part of a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation linked to Malaysian state fund 1MDB, police said.
"We have been inspecting the crew since yesterday and now we are taking action, since we have received approval from the court to seize the boat," Agung Setya, director of economic and special crimes at Indonesia's criminal investigation bureau, told Metro TV.
Reuters reported that television footage in Indonesia showed Indonesian officials talking to the crew on board the moored yacht.
It is not known whether Jho Low, the owner of the superyacht, was on board.
According to Indonesian media, the seizure was a joint action between the Indonesian authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Read more at https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/413822#bs3yWROGYUyYHI96.99
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Lest We Forget....1MDB
We start the weekend with this "Lest we forget reminder" from our friend ESS on 1MDB :
Here is the full list of 1MDB's RM95 billion debt, based on the last filed audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2014, and updated for the debt awarded to IPIC Plc, Abu Dhabi by the LCIA, UK in April 2017.
Since 2014, 1MDB has sold its IPP business for RM16 billion (including bank loans of about RM6 billion) and, as of yesterday, disposed its land banks in Penang and Selangor, all to China companies.
As 1MDB's accounts for 2013 & 2014 were withdrawn by Detoilette as "cannot be relied upon" and the accounts for 2015-2017 have not been prepared, audited or filed, we do not have an accurate picture of the current debt position.
Let MoF Chief Sec Serigar Abdullah who is also 1MDB's Chairman, and CEO Arul Kanda, update the Rakyat.
Also note that, originally, the RM4 billion debt now parked under MoF's 100% subsidiary SRC, was raised by 1MDB. SRC has not published its accounts for some 4 years! It was from this RM4 billion that SRC's CEO, who has been allowed to flee to Indonesia by Najib, illegally transferred RM42 million to Najib's personal AMMB a/c, which he says he did not know about, but nevertheless, issued cheques to pay for Rosmah's $3.4 million Italy jewellery purchases, over RM4 million for cars for family members etc.
As to the RM4 billion, MoF/SRC has only disclosed some RM400 million invested in a Mongolian coal mining venture and an undisclosed sum in Indonesia. What happened to the balance of RM3.6 billion? Songlapped by Najib for sure!
Lest We Forget....
Retweeted FABM (@fabm11):
US$602.7 million is a lot of money to pay to IPIC but 1MDB still has huge OUTSTANDING debts!
RM5 billion 30-year bond
US$3.5 billion 10-year bonds
US$3 billion 10-year bond
RM800 million Socso loan
RM2.4 billion sukuk
TOTAL RM35.2 BILLION = RM35,200 MILLION + interest
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‼️Saturday, 4 November 2017
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
Again...the opposition lies?
Sharesteadyaku47 comment :
This is one or the reasons I sometimes want to hantam the opposition! Why must you all tell lies about what Datuk Seri Zahid said or did not say? How can anybody believe that our DPM has asked Interpol to go look for that Jho Low? Aiyah why so hard to find him? No need for Interpol if you really want to look for him....to fat to hide behind anything ma! But I digress.....
Why should our DPM ask Interpol to go look for Jho Low when PDRM investigation on Jho Low is already close? And once the investigation is close there is no need to ask Jho Low what happened on that Yacht.
No need to ask Jho Low about where Najib's step son got all that money to buy the properties in the US and finance "Wolf of Wall Street".
No need to ask Jho Low about what he has to do with 1MDB....because case already close ma!
So please all you opposition politicians....especially Azmin Ali...do not spread lies. Jho Low is not wanted by PDRM. Not wanted by this BN government. Not wanted to explain his role as Financial Consultant/Advisor for 1MDB.....so let Jho Low go and enjoy life on that Mega Yacht of his!
Case closed!
However...should the PRU 14 puts the opposition into government...sure you die one! Then Interpol might be requested to go look for Jho Low and bring him back to KL to join Najib and Rosmah in Sugai Buloh. Until then....enjoy!
However...this is what Zahid said : So Zahid how?
However...this is what Zahid said : So Zahid how?
Saturday, 16 September 2017
Sarawak Report : Where Did The Real Saudi Money Go? Commentary
16 September 2017
The billions stolen from 1MDB have tended to over-shadow other very substantial sums of money that DID go into Najib’s personal account from Saudi Arabia.
These secret payments undoubtedly formed the basis for Najib’s decision to label all his incomings as a ‘Saudi Royal donation’, trading off the discomfort and likely silence of a country, which has been accused of funnelling large tranches of its oil wealth into developing client nations and promoting its particular brand of extremist ideology across the Muslim world.
Secret US$80,000,000 was paid to Najib
It was the ABC Four Corners programme which gained access to a full insight of Najib’s so-called ‘Mr’ Account at AmBank, back in March last year. What they found were not only the payments from Jho Low companies like Tanore Finance (BVI) and Blackstone Asia (BVI) amounting to a billion dollars, but also substantial receipts from the Saudi Arabian Finance Ministry.
Two whopping payments in 2011 came to US$80 million:
ABC Four Corner’s findings on Najib’s account
Given this enormous and undisclosed bung by the Government of Saudi Arabia into the private account of Malaysia’s Prime Minister, it is perhaps not surprising that when confronted by Malaysian cameras (with Anifa Aman, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, at his shoulder) the embarrassed Saudi Foreign Minister mumbled a willingness to accept Najib’s stories about a ‘Saudi Royal donor’, something he had earlier denied, before declaring the “matter closed”.
So, leaving aside the billion dollars from 1MDB aside, what did the PM spend this particular US$80 million from Saudi Arabia on? Surely, no one believes that Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry was handing Najib so much undisclosed cash without a specific purpose?
Spreading Saudi’s Sectarian Agenda?
It is widely acknowledged that Saudi has been building up its influence throughout the Muslim world by dispensing secretive sums to develop supportive infrastructures within client states – using oil money to expand their specific brand of religious authoritarianism.
What used to be regarded as an isolated and extremst fringe of the Muslim world, the Wahabist sect, is now spreading its tentacles far and wide thanks to these millions poured into religious training, teaching jobs and tarfiz schools, where the converted promote the ideas taught at Saudi universities and places of learning.
This Saudi agenda and the support of rigorous rote learning (considered brain-washing by most non-participants) has been frequently identified as a key source of the growing intolerance and extremism seen to be causing instability throughout the Muslim world. Malaysia’s own firebrand PAS Islamic Party President, Hadi Awang, who is known for his desire to establish an Islamic State and Hudud law in Malaysia, was himself trained and educated over in Saudi Arabia.
Hadi is now recognised as having come far closer to Najib and UMNO, as Malaysian government support for religious schools has increased in recent years. So, was the further promotion of Saudi style Islamic teaching, the expansion of ‘independent’ religious schools and jobs for religious teachers the purpose of this secret budget provided for Najib Razak by the Saudi Finance Ministry?
If not, how was that whopping sum of money (the equivalent of RM335 million) spent?
Certainly, quite apart from any other possible fuding, Najib has started making large and unprecedented government donations to private religious institutions in recent years, despite growing concerns that they are poorly monitored. The Prime Minister, who loves to posture as a ‘moderate’ abroad, has also proved willing and enthusiastic towards welcoming the Islamic extremist agenda of a retreat from civil governance in favour of Hudud religious law – Saudi-style.
So, again, it is time to hear how did the secret US$80 million provided by this foreign power straight into Najib’s bank account get spent? If the Prime Minister has been using the money to curry domestic politial favour with a segment of the population he wishes to bring over from the opposition to bolster BN, whilst at the same time permitting insiduous and secret influence mongering by a foreign power, Malaysians have a right to know.
If, to the contrary, the money went towards non-political causes, public education, care for the elderly, hospitals, orphanages, refugees or some such cause then this is the time to bring out the distribution details.
Najib’s own party, which has since Independence held its own policies and ideals, supposedly free from foreign agendas, also have a right to know how he spent this money, since party officials have long made clear they had no idea that Najib had been receiving all this undisclosed cash, until ABC Australia’s Four Corners programme told them so.
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Thursday, 14 September 2017
Lest We Forget : 1MDB : The Inside story
1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Sarawak Report DOJ - Continuing Analysis Of The Deceit And Duplicity Of 1MDB's Top Officials On Behalf of Jho Low and Najib
13 September 2017
At the weekend Sarawak Report detailed some of the examples given in the US Department of Justice’s court filing showing the deliberate conspiracy to commit fraud participated in by top 1MDB officials in order to help siphon billions from the fund.
All their actions were orchestrated by Najib’s appointed advisor Jho Low and were signed off by Najib himself. These actions included providing different signed versions of the same formal agreements to different parties, primarily in order to get one set of bankers to release the stolen funds (on the grounds they were merely ‘repayments of loans’ or ‘refundable deposits’) and other sets of bankers to accept the stolen funds (as ‘payments’ or ‘loans’).
The 251 page document goes on to detail several more such instances of blatant fraud, forgery and deception, all sanctioned by today’s guest at the White House, Najib Razak, who together with his family was the major beneficiary of the missing billions.
Fraudulent Cover-Ups
One such further manoeuvre is described by the FBI investigators as they detail how the collaborators sought to inflate the value of the original PetroSaudi Joint Venture with 1MDB after most of the money had been stolen out of the venture from the very beginning.
is the headline for this section, which explains how at least $1.03 billion of the $1.83 billion invested in the joint venture was stolen but 1MDB officials tried to alter the nature of its relationship with PetroSaudi several times (from a joint venture, to a loan, to a sell out in return for an investment in the company that was disguised as a ‘balanced portfolio’ but hidden off-shore). In summary the DOL says:
Ouch! It means all the sceptisim of critics like Tony Pua, who questioned the real value of the Cayman Islands portfolio that claimed to be worth $2.2 billion, representing over a stunning $400 million in profits, has been born out. Exactly how Jho Low and 1MDB officials pulled off this fraudulent con to hide their thefts from the 1MDB auditors are detailed here:
Remember that Najib’s cheerleaders are fond of repeating that the DOJ have “no proof” to substantiate their accusations. They clearly have chosen not to read this detective novel of a court filing available free online!
Lying Bankers
The excuse of many of the banks caught up in 1MDB is that they were lied to by Jho Low, PetroSaudi, Aabar and 1MDB officials. However, as the DOJ makes clear, a number of bankers colluded also in these lies, which has been backed up by trials in Singapore that resulted in prison sentences for a number of them.
For example, this is how 1MDB officials and their cronies at BSI (specifically Yak Yew Chee and Yeo Jiawei) helped mislead 1MDB’s accountants by providing false valuations and claiming there was cash in the Brazen Sky account belonging to 1MDB:
Redeeming The Money!
The next piece of deception in which this team of lying officials all colluded was the nonsense farce of 2014 when Najib Razak and his Finance Ministry team and 1MDB repeatedly told the world that they were ‘redeeming’ the money ‘invested in PetroSaudi’ and then the ‘Cayman Island Portfolio’ back into 1MDB’s bank accounts.
No one sensible believed them at the time and quite rightly so. The DOJ has lifted the veil over what they were up to and sure enough the money they had flowing through various bank accounts that they claimed were being returned from the Bridge Global Investment Fund based in the Caymans was in fact money 1MDB had just borrowed from Deutsche Bank, based on the lie that the Bridge Global money was sitting as collateral in the bank!
In other words, a perfect example of what is known in the business as ’round-tripping’ or more colloquially as cooking the books. One wonders why Najib still bothers to declare the far milder Auditor General’s version of the same events an ‘Official Secret’ when the DOJ’s damning evidence is out there to back it up?
Low Forged Fake Documents
Dear Readers – we are still only one of the way through this DOJ page turner of a crime thriller and the word ‘fraud/fraudulent’ has come up two dozen times and the word ‘false’ a dozen times, as in:
In this section the DOJ details how Low tried to lie and pretend on the one hand he didn’t own Good Star and then to another bank the following month that he did in order to be able to move the money. And there is plenty in the DOJ report to show exactly how Low was using this stolen money – for example the millions he splashed gambling in Las Vegas:
It has already been detailed many times how these same conspirators colluded on a number of ridiculous letters to banks, accountants and auction houses to pretend that the monies they had stolen were gifts either from Saudi Royals or each other (Hussein to Riza, Tan to Low, Low’s Dad to Low) or just no strings-attached investments from SRC to companies controlled by Low (Nik Faisal Arif Kamil of SRC signed off such monies to BSI Bank for companies like the bogus Affinity Capital and the bogus Pacific Harbour off-shore shell companies, bothowned by Tan/Low).
All of the above involved forgeries, lies and nonsense now lie revealed for all to read about and under the relentless spotlight of the DOJ investigation.
These conspirators didn’t just plot together. The bent officials from 1MDB partied and gambled the money away together with Low and Najib’s son, whilst ordering diamonds for The Boss.
So, when their successors pompously release 1MDB statements and press releases condemning critics and telling the world that their ‘restructuring programmes’ are underway and that there is no evidence of wrong doing, the rest of us should remember it is all still just lies and the lot of them will meet their eventual judgement time in a US court of law.
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