If the US really wants to put Najib on trial, there’s no escape
In case Mr Najib hasn’t figured it out, the President of the United States is not the most powerful person. The US media can make or break their president.
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Going by the number of people who rejoice at the news that a U.S. federal grand jury is examining allegations of corruption involving the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and people close to him, presumably his stepson Riza Aziz and partner-in-crime Jho Low; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how much the public despise their leader.
While it’s not easy to “invite” Najib to the United States to face trial, the same cannot be said about his stepson Riza Aziz and bag-carrier Jho Low. It’s unknown if Riza holds other citizenships besides Malaysian’s but Jho Low (real name Taek Jho Low) holds not one but two American passports. Although Jho Low is believed to be hiding in Taiwan, its still isn’t safe.
Although the Justice Department investigation is still in its early days, and it could take years to determine if any federal laws were broken, the damage to Najib Razak has already been done, internationally. In case Mr Najib hasn’t figured it out, the President of the United States is not the most powerful person. The US media can make or break their president.
According to the New York Times, both Riza Aziz and school pal Jho Low are being investigated on their US$150 million collection of luxury residential properties. The Swiss authorities had frozen several individuals’ bank accounts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. One of the frozen accounts belongs to Larry Low Hock Peng, Jho Low’s father.
The US DOJ is also investigating a US$681 million payment made to what is believed to be Mr. Najib’s personal bank account. Since the US$681 million payment was routed through Wells Fargo, an American bank, the DOJ has jurisdiction because the questionable payment used a United States financial system.
The scandal is being investigated under the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Initiative, which allows the US government to seize properties in the country. Naturally, Riza Aziz and Jho Low would be grilled by the US authorities as to the source of their funds. The present perception is Najib has siphoned money from 1MDB to fund his stepson’s luxury properties’ purchase.
Since neither Riza Aziz nor Jho Low enjoys any kind of diplomatic immunity, they would be easy meat for the DOJ. It’s likely that both individuals won’t expose Najib’s name and choose to spend some quiet years in US prison, if they ever found to have funded their shopping spree with money derived from corruption or money laundering activities.
As for Najib Razak, it’s not easy for golfing buddy President Obama to scratch his back. It would be too obvious if suddenly the DOJ drops all the investigations against Mr Najib. News media such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and whatnot are not beholden to Obama. In fact, there’re thousands of newspapers in the US for Obama to control or for Najib to bribe.
If the US government wanted to, they can do another “invasion of Panama”on Najib Razak. They can fly their men from their Singapore military base into Najib’s bedroom, arrest him and fly him back to Singapore before transporting the pink lips to the United States. But this will be overkill and too extreme,unless there’re Americans being killed under his administration.
After he single-handedly sacked the Attorney General Gani Patail before an arrest warrant could be officially issued, PM Najib cannot be arrested in Malaysia. But can he be arrested once he stepped out of the country? The short answer is no because he enjoys diplomatic immunity. He can even openly rape and murder anybody he likes and still get away with it.
However, there’re many way to skin a pussy cat.
