Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KULA LUMPUR (July 7): Did former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak make use of Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) saga, or was it the other way around? Or was it a joint operation by both of them? This is a question that is bugging all Malaysians, says Lim Kit Siang.

Using the term 'goldmine' in reference to 1MDB in his statement today, Kit Siang, who is DAP Member of Parliament for Iskandar Puteri, said in a recent interview with Malaysiakini, Najib spoke for the first time on Low, who was 28 years of age when he first teamed up with Najib -- who had just become the sixth premier in April 2008 -- to set up "the 1MDB goldmine".

In the civil suits filed on June 7 and 14 last year, the various US Department of Justice (DoJ) documents had revealed an email Low sent to his parents, brother and sister on Sept 7, 2009 -- after he had met Malaysian Official 1 and the PetroSaudi International co-founders Tarek Obaid and Prince Turki on a yacht off Monaco -- where Low wrote, “Just closed the deal with Petrosaudi. Looks like we have hit a goldmin(e).”

"Najib said that prior to him becoming the prime minister or 1MDB's existence, Low had already taken control of three listed companies in Malaysia and had significant investments in the Iskandar Johor project with funding purportedly coming from certain Middle East countries.

"Najib said: 'He (Low) certainly impressed many including me with his strong Middle-East connections'," Kit Siang recounted.

According to Kit Siang, Najib’s interview on Low was significant for its several omissions, one of which was Low’s close relationship with Riza Aziz -- Najib’s stepson -- developed when Low went to the elite Harrow School in London, resulting in Riza "becoming an important member of the cast of 1MDB personalities".

"According to the DoJ largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in July 2016, the 1MDB 'goldmine' was set up in September 2009 with a joint venture between PetroSaudi and 1MDB – which was discussed in late summer in 2009 between Najib and co-founders of PetroSaudi aboard a yacht off the coast of Monaco," said Kit Siang.

"In the interview, Najib said he did not ask about the Equanimity yacht at that time as he was not aware of its existence. Was this possible?" asked Kit Siang.

The veteran lawmaker noted that in its expanded filings of the 1MDB kleptocratic litigation in June 2017, the DoJ had referred specifically to the Equanimity yacht when the DoJ expanded its total of 1MDB-linked assets it sought to forfeit in less than a year from US$1 billion to US$1.7 billion, with the total money-laundering involved increasing from US$3.5 billion to US$4.5 billion

Kit Siang also pointed to a new fourth “principal phase” of the criminal conduct of 1MDB embezzlement, fraud and money-laundering was added to the three earlier phases of “Good Star”, “Aabar-BVI” and “Tanore”.

"This was the fourth Options Buy-Back Phase, where some US$850 million in 1MDB funds was misappropriated under the guise of paying Aabar Investments PJS to relinquish certain options it had been given in consideration of (parent) International Petroleum Investment Co's (IPIC) guarantee of the 2012 bonds.

"1MDB borrowed US$1.22 billion from a syndicate of banks led by Deutsche Bank in Singapore to fund these payments of Aabar, but US$850 million were diverted to Aabar-BVI and Aabar-Seychelles, that appeared to be, but were not affiliated with IPIC and Aabar. One of these 1MDB-linked assets acquired from stolen 1MDB funds was the billion-ringgit Equanimity yacht," said Kit Siang.

Kit Siang added that if Najib still believes in accountability and transparency, the former premier should make public the number of times and the locations when he had met Low after the DoJ kleptocratic litigation was first filed in July 2016, and state the substance and nature of these meetings with Low.


 

      Print
      Text Size
      Share