Ex-Central Bank Governor Zeti Must Explain Najib’s Accusation She Covered Up 1MDB Scandal

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She was Malaysia’s Central Bank (Bank Negara) Governor from 2000 to 2016, and was the first woman in the prestigious position. In 2009, Global Finance named her as one of the world’s best central bank chiefs. On 20 May 2011, Bloomberg chose her as one of top four nominees to head the prestigious International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, by 2015, when the 1MDB scandal exploded throughout the world, the name Zeti Akhtar Aziz was being dragged into the theft of the century crisis. All of a sudden, her reputation took a hit in what appeared to be an internal “cover-up” for her boss, the then Prime Minister Najib Razak, who would lose his position 3 years later in 2018 as the most powerful man in the country.

Zeti was one of the top 4 guns, the other three being – former Attorney General Gani Patail, former MACC Chief Abu Kassim and former IGP Khalid Abu Bakar – all of whom were part of a task force involved in the investigation of 1MDB scandal back in 2015. When the ex-AG Gani was sacked by PM Najib in July 2015, ahead of his retirement in October, all hell broke loose.

After Gani was stunningly fired, it was later revealed that he was actually in the middle of preparing charge sheets (warrant arrest) against PM Najib Razak. The MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) investigation papers on SRC International (involving RM42 million) concluded there were at least 37 separate charges that could be made against Mr. Najib.

And former police chief Khalid was believed to be the disgraced traitor who tipped off Najib, leading to the former attorney general Gani being axed. Mahathir had hinted that one of the four top guns had betrayed the other three in an attempt to bring Najib Razak to face justice. Mahathir said that if not for the alleged act of betrayal, the corrupted prime minister would have had faced action.

Najib’s band of paid-cybertroopers, propagandists and bloggers had claimed 3 of them – Zeti, Gani and Kassim – had betrayed Najib, indirectly suggested that Inspector General of Police Khalid was indeed the traitor. A month after A.G. Gani’s sacking, Governor Zeti made some breathtaking public statements which sounded as if she was playing dumb.

Najib Razak, who was the Chairman of 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad), has denied any involvement in the scandal although he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar – a whopping US$681 million in his private banking accounts. Instead, Mr. Najib has claimed that the money was donations from Saudi royal family, a claim that could not be substantiated.

Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was also exposed to have had purchased a 22-carat pink diamond necklace – worth a stunning US$27.3 million – using money siphoned from 1MDB. According to U.S.-DOJ investigations, Jho Low had arranged for jewellery designer Lorraine Schwartz (also known as “Jewish Queen of Oscar Bling”) for the pink diamond on June 2, 2013.

Other 1MDB-linked assets which were reported to have been seized by the U.S.-DOJ include Jho Low’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet in Singapore, jewellery worth millions of dollars gifted to celebrities Australian Miranda Kerr, Taiwanese Elvia Hsiao, and several properties in New York, artwork, film rights and a US$107 million interest in EMI Music Publishing.

Najib’s corruption scandal is so massive and legendary that the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges lawsuits filed to seize assets that it said were the result of US$4.5 billionthat was misappropriated from 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd), a fund set up by Najib Razak himself in 2009, represents the largest action brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.

The following were the controversial statements from Governor Zeti in August, 2015:

1. She said the investigation papers and the “appropriate enforcement action” were submitted to the new A.G. Apandi Ali earlier of the week.
2. She said Bank Negara was not an enforcement body and could not take actionagainst any alleged wrongdoing.
3. She said it was the responsibility of financial institution (Najib’s private account was with Ambank) to conduct due diligence, not the central bank.
4. She threatened that she will sue those spreading rumours about her over issues surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Scandal.
5. She said will remain in office until her term ends in April next year (2016).

Obviously, the governor, in her attempt to protect her skin (and probably her husband and son’s alleged corruption over government contracts), displayed her cowardice by immediately playing “tai-chi” after the sacking of Gani Patail. It was laughable that Zeti declared to the world that the Central Bank could not take action against any alleged wrongdoing.

If it was true that the Central Bank was indeed powerless, then who the heck gave Zeti the authority to raid Genneva Malaysia which was suspected in “Ponzi Scheme” involving gold trading in 2012, and in the process seized gold, monies and other properties? In comparison to Najib pocketing RM2.6 billion, the Genneva Gold scheme looked fabulously legitimate and innocent.

Yes, until today, Zeti hasn’t been able to answer why the Central Bank had the authority to raid Genneva Malaysia but not the Prime Minister Office, despite the fact both had engaged in a Ponzi scheme. The Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General had established that a “Ponzi” scheme fraud was committed to conceal the misappropriations from both the SRC fund and from 1MDB.

Zeti’s statement had also shown how irresponsible she was as the guardian of good governance of the country’s financial industry. By blaming banks (presumably Ambank in 1MDB scandal), it gave an impression that unless banks pro-actively inform the central bank, the governor couldn’t care less about money laundering, loan sharking, arm dealings and whatnot.

There was little doubt that the ex-governor selfishly cared more about herself than the integrity of the central bank. By keeping her elegant silence, she had essentially legitimized Najib’s US$681 million dirty money. Her past action has now come back to haunt her. Like it or not, Najib was right to question Zeti – why the governor didn’t raise the red flag in the first place?

Unless Zeti can prove the banking system was so ancient and crippled that it had failed to raise the alarm over the RM2.6 billion landing on Najib’s accounts, which is very unlikely, Najib’s defence lawyer will definitely grill the former central bank governor. Perhaps she can claim that her entire family was being threatened at gunpoint by Najib and his wife Rosmah (grin*).