PRESS STATEMENT / For Immediate Release / Geneva, Switzerland, August 29th 2016 - 1350hrs CET
by Anastasia Suvorova, Najadi & Partners
GENEVA: Moscow and Geneva-based Investment Banker Pascal Najadi, who once called Malaysia home, has expressed shock that police in his old country were keeping an “ominous silence” despite #TangkapMO1” (Catch Malaysian Official 1) street protests by student coalitions. Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) is the euphemism used by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to refer to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) is the euphemism used by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), in a civil action suit filed in a California Court recently, to refer to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Swiss-born Investment Banker Pascal Najadi charged that when his father Hussain Ahmad Najadi was assassinated in late July 2013, outside a temple in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian police likewise virtually did nothing. "They never probed the motive behind the killing. They refuse to investigate the motive that is central to any criminal investigation the world over."
His father, who founded ArabMalaysian which has since emerged as the country's 5th largest bank, knew then that unusually large sums of money originating from the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were entering AmBank Islamic Private Banking Services. "They were being deposited in the Prime Minister's personal account according a witness that gave us his statement," he recalled.
Pascal pointed out the DoJ has since confirmed the money that his father complained about to the central bank, Bank Negara, was the same itemized in the civil action suit i.e. USD 681 million, USD20 million and USD30 million, all originating from 1MDB.
The Malaysian Attorney General Mohd Apandi Ali cleared Najib of wrongdoing last July. He never touched on the USD20 million and the USD30 million but only on the USD681 million and another sum, RM42 million, from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance owned SRC International. "Apandi said the USD681 million was a political donation, with no strings attached, from the Saudi Royal Family to Najib," noted Pascal.
"The Attorney General also explained that when Najib was spending the RM42 million, including RM3 million on two credit card bills, he thought that the money was part of the so-called USD681 million donation. There is the mismatch."
The catch in the story, added Pascal, can be found in Najib's explanation itself to the AG. "The AG said that Najib returned USD620 million of the USD681 million because 'it was not used'." The fact is that Najib, according to his story, had already returned USD620 million of the "political donation" by the time the RM42 million came in. So, said Pascal, he (Najib) cannot claim that when he was spending the RM42 million, he assumed it was part of the USD681 million.
The AG could have thrown the book at Najib on the RM42 million, continued Pascal, but he didn't. "The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act (MACC) is clear. The receipt of the RM42 million -- allegedly for instructing the Retirement Fund KWAP to loan RM4 billion to SRC -- was a clear cut case of corruption."
Not only did the AG clear Najib on the RM42 million and the USD681 million, lamented the Swiss Investment Banker, he also instructed the MACC to close the files on the investigations although he has no power to do so. "There's no evidence either that Najib returned the RM42 million to SRC International."
He hopes that something will come out of three cases that former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim, sacked Umno Batu Kawan deputy divisional chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan, and the Bar Council have filed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to compel Najib to return the RM42 million to SRC International and the USD681 million to 1MDB.
"No one believes that Najib 'returned' USD620 million to the Saudi Royal Family," said Pascal. "The question doesn't arise. The USD681 million was from 1MDB. The DoJ filings are clear on the matter."
By Najib's own admission, he said, he spent USD31 million of the USD681 million on buying the 2013 General Election. "That's electoral fraud to add to plundering public monies. Clear cut criminal acts in my opinion." Najadi concluded.
--
Respectfully,
Anastasia Suvorova
Press Officer
