Penang Undersea Tunnel Corruption Scandal: Tommy Thomas is proving to be a bigger crook than Guan Eng
The question is: did Zarul pay Gnanaraja RM19 million to quash his corruption case and was the case quashed? The answer is yes. As far as Zarul is concerned, the RM19 million was a bribe and the purpose of the bribe was to quash the Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption case. And that happened — Zarul, Guan Eng, and all the others are still free.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
DAP in Crisis: The Penang Undersea Tunnel Corruption Scandal
“68 money laundering charges for businessman accused of cheating,” said today’s headlines.
This headline is meant to give the following perception:
1. Lim Guan Eng is not involved in this case.
2. The RM19 million that Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd executive director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli paid G Gnanaraja was not a bribe.
3. Gnanaraja cheated Zarul.
4. The RM19 million had nothing to do with the Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption case.
5. The RM19 million was not paid to any officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Yet again Guan Eng escapes a corruption case
This charge, as the headline said — “68 money laundering charges for businessman accused of cheating” — more or less removes the element of bribery and suggests that this is merely a simple cheating case or a crime of a con.
The Attorney-General, Tommy Thomas, is taking Malaysians for a ride. He is protecting Lim Guan Eng and wants to make sure Guan Eng does not go to jail. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should remove the AG and throw him into jail.
Zarul’s signed statement to the MACC in January 2018 was very clear. He paid Gnanaraja an amount of RM19 million as a bribe to help get the MACC to drop the bribery case against him and to get the file closed and marked NFA (no further action).
Zarul was arrested in January 2018. He paid the bribe in February 2018. Since then he, Lim Guan Eng, Dr Ramasamy Palanisamy, Chow Kon Yow, Abdul Malik Kassim, Lim Hock Seng and Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz have not been arrested and charged for corruption.
Tommy Thomas has turned a corruption crime into a crime of cheating to save Guan Eng
It does not matter what happened to the money. Maybe Gnanaraja did not pay the RM19 million to anyone in the MACC. Maybe he just took the MACC officers out for dinner and then for a massage after dinner. Maybe not a single sen of that RM19 million was handed to the MACC.
The issue is Zarul paid the RM19 million to settle under-the-table his Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption case. And the Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption case was settled under the table and the file was closed and marked NFA.
That is all that matters. A bribe was paid and Zarul got what he paid for.
Tommy Thomas is proving to be a bigger crook than Guan Eng
It does not matter if Gnanaraja paid the MACC just RM2 million and pocketed RM17 million. It does not matter if Gnanaraja paid the MACC RM21 million and ‘lost’ RM2 million on the deal. It does not matter if Gnanaraja kept the entire RM19 million and paid the MACC nothing.
The question is: did Zarul pay Gnanaraja RM19 million to quash his corruption case and was the case quashed? The answer is yes. As far as Zarul is concerned, the RM19 million was a bribe and the purpose of the bribe was to quash the Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption case. And that happened — Zarul, Guan Eng, and all the others are still free.
How much Gnanaraja pocketed and how much he paid the MACC is not Zarul’s concern because it is normal that the broker will keep something for himself and pay the other party just part of the amount. Does the Attorney-General, Tommy Thomas, not understand this or does he think he can con us that easily?
To save Guan Eng, Gnanaraja has to face a cheating charge, which he can easily get off later
There was one case in Kuala Terengganu 30 years ago where a bribe was paid but the person who received the bribe did not deliver his end of the deal. He was still convicted for bribery (and not for cheating) although he took the money but failed to deliver. It is not what he did in the end that counts but what the intention was when he committed the crime of receiving a bribe.
Sigh…I think I will become a lawyer when I grow up. By the way, my father was a Barrister from Lincoln’s Inn.
