(July 24): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has issued an alert for two individuals wanted for investigation purposes under the Exchange Control Act 1953.

Both persons have had dealings with debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The two are Casey Tang Keng Chee, 50, and Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, 42.

A notice on both individuals was posted on BNM's fraud alert website today as well as the central bank's Facebook page.

Tang is a former executive director of 1MDB and was alleged to have worked with tycoon Low Taek Jho and top executives of PetroSaudi International to get 1MDB to subscribe to US$500 million of murabaha notes.

Some US$260 million of this money from 1MDB was used by Low to buy UBG Bhd, The Edge Weekly had previously reported.

The report, published on June 7, said that Tang and 1MDB chief investment officer Nik Faisal Nik Kamil were actively working with PetroSaudi and Low in the UBG takeover.

Nik Faisal, at that time, had just joined 1MDB from UBG.

The Edge Weekly published several emails showing the communication between Tang and Nik Faisal with Patrick Mahony, who is a top executive at PetroSaudi and CEO of joint venture company 1MDB-PetroSaudi Ltd, in which the state fund had invested RM1 billion.

UBG was the financial vehicle of then-Sarawak chief minister Tun Taib Abdul Mahmud, but it sold RHB Bank in 2007 and was left with nearly RM2 billion cash which was what attracted Low to first buy into the company.

Meanwhile, Loo has been identified as secretary to 1MDB. She has also been reportedly summoned by the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as part of its investigations into 1MDB.

Loo was a former executive director of legal and compliance in UBG. She was on UBG's board at the same time with Nik Faisal and Jho Low, who was an adviser to UBG.

1MDB, which currently sits on a RM42 billion debt, is being investigated by a special task force, the PAC and the auditor-general for alleged misappropriation of state funds.

The task force is also looking into a trail of money from state-owned funds leading to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts.

BNM governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz is part of the task force, which includes Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed.

So far, three people have been detained to assist in the investigations, including Jerome Lee, 39, who is group executive director of construction firm Putrajaya Perdana Berhad and had previously been employed as an investment director with 1MDB. He was released today on police bail.

The other two are Datuk Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman of Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd and Ariffin Ismail Shahul Hameed, owner of a trading company in Setapak. They are both currently under remand. – The Malaysian Insider