Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s special task force investigating the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal is working with its Singapore counterpart to recover money believed to have been misappropriated by the state-owned strategic investment fund.

It said Singapore’s 1MDB Special Task Force has agreed to cooperate with its Malaysian counterpart to return monies. Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force is led by former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, incumbent MACC chief Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) special branch department director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador,

In a statement, Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force said that during a meeting at 9.30am yesterday, it and Singapore’s 1MDB Special Task Force agreed to cooperate to bring back funds related to 1MDB to the Malaysian government.

“This meeting today (yesterday) has agreed that both parties will collaborate to recover a total sum of monies to the Malaysian government that have been allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB. The collaboration between both parties also aim at collecting evidence and tracking down witnesses in Singapore as soon as possible,” it added.

“Apart from that, the Malaysian task force will also conduct [a] money trail to detect monies or assets that still exist,” it said, adding that the meeting was attended by nine senior officers from Singapore’s task force, consisting of representatives from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), the Commercial Affairs Department, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force has representatives from the AGC, MACC, PDRM and Bank Negara Malaysia.

Yesterday’s meeting came a week after Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force met officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ), where both the US investigators agreed to offer their full cooperation to the Malaysian authorities in the latter’s ongoing investigation into 1MDB.

Apart from authorities from Malaysia, Singapore and the US, 1MDB-related transactions also face probes in other countries including Switzerland, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

The Singapore authorities have previously taken action against several individuals such as ex-BSI Bank wealth planner Yeo Jiawei for involvement in 1MDB-related money laundering activities, and ordered Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank’s Singapore branch to cease operation, while withdrawing BSI Bank Ltd’s status as a merchant bank in Singapore.

Both financial institutions were involved in 1MDB-related transactions.

In Malaysia, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was summoned twice to provide his cooperation to the MACC’s investigation last week.

Najib, who was formerly the chairperson of 1MDB’s advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing, and has pledged that the administration he led previously will provide full cooperation to international investigations.

However, the FBI and DoJ last week revealed to Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force that former MACC chief Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad and Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had not been responding to assistance requests from the US.

Dzulkifli tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the latter’s first working day after taking over Putrajaya from Najib, subsequent to Pakatan Harapan’s historical victory in the 14th general election.

Apandi, meanwhile, has been told to go on leave while his duties will be temporarily taken over by Solicitor-General Datuk Engku Nor Faizah Engku Atek.

After swearing in as the seventh PM, Dr Mahathir has been facilitating the resumption of investigation into 1MDB, such as travel bans on several individuals who allegedly are involved in the scandal, including Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

The PDRM also conducted raids on 12 premises, including Najib’s private residence and three high-end apartments, two of them linked to Najib’s two children Nooryana Najwa Najib and Ashman Najib.

Last week, Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh confirmed that the amounts of cash seized from an empty apartment in the high-end Pavilion area in Kuala Lumpur amounted to RM114 million, which were denominated in 26 currencies, the bulk of which were in ringgit, US dollars and Singapore dollars.

The seizure included 284 boxes of handbags, and 72 boxes of various other items, of which 35 boxes contained the RM114 million hard cash, while the remaining 37 boxes contained jewellery and watches.

In a statement last week, the finance ministry also confirmed that the former government, led by Najib, had bailed out troubled 1MDB through funds raised from Bank Negara Malaysia’s purchase of a piece of land for RM2 billion and RM3 billion of redeemable cumulative convertible preference shares issued by Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

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