Tuan Ibrahim: Why US can find so much evidence on 1MDB?
PAS number two wants Najib to speak up on 1MDB, both as Finance Minister and stepfather to Riza Aziz, who is implicated in US DoJ action.
(FMT) – Malaysian authorities should initiate fresh action against 1MDB, based on evidence gathered by the United States on the state-owned investment fund, PAS said today.
PAS Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man in a statement, questioned how is it that the US authorities could find so much evidence against 1MDB, but Malaysian authorities couldn’t.
“Is Prime Minister Najib Razak, as the Finance Minister and the step-father to Riza (Aziz) going to continue being mum on the issue?
“What is interesting about the US civil suit is that they found that Good Star Limited is owned by Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and not PetroSaudi, as claimed by the Finance Ministry in a parliamentary written reply on May 26,” he said, adding that it had also proved that Aabar-BVI is a company unrelated to Aabar Investment PJS, owned by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Company (IPIC).
“It is weird how the US Department of Justice (DoJ) can find evidence against the company, which the Malaysian authorities had failed to do.”
Yesterday, US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch told a press conference that 1MDB officials treated the state investment fund like “a personal bank account” and “stole billions of dollars from the people of Malaysia”.
The DoJ alleged offences were committed over a four-year period and involved multiple individuals, including Malaysian officials and their associates, who conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB.
It specifically named Riza Aziz, Jho Low, and Abu Dhabi government officials Khadem al-Qubaisi and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.
In its lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles, DoJ said it sought to seize assets “involved in and traceable to an international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated from 1MDB”, which include penthouses, mansions, artwork, a private jet and proceeds from the “Wolf of Wall Street” movie.
Tuan Ibrahim then questioned whether the Malaysian authorities – the police, Auditor-General, the Attorney-General, the MACC, as well as Bank Negara Malaysia, would initiate fresh action against 1MDB based on the evidence gathered by the US.
“The rakyat are waiting to see whether the authorities are working for the country and its people, or for certain individuals,” he said, urging 1MDB President and Group Executive Director Arul Kanda “to decide on the next course of action, for your own sake and the country’s”.
Tuan Ibrahim then called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be set up to look into the matter, comprising “ulama” who are well-versed in Islamic economy and finances.
