When will messy 1MDN Scandal end and Justice done?

May 28, 2018

By Tashny Sukumaran

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2147883/where-will-it-end-najib-razaks-1mdb-chickens-come-home-roost

Rosmah Mansor and Najib Razak are being pursued by a new Sheriff in town

The 1MDB scandal had haunted the administration of Najib Razak after first coming to light in 2015. Now there is a new sheriff in town, the public is on the edge of its seat as it watches the wheels of justice begin to turn.

The late night raid is not a new phenomenon in Malaysian politics. It happened in 1998 to then Deputy Prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. But while that raid stoked the fires of the Reformasi movement, the recent Police lockdown of embattled former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s house saw the electorate rejoicing.

The Police began searching all of Najib’s properties last week as part of an investigation into the 1MDB financial scandal which has haunted the former Prime Minister since 2015. Investigators in several countries have alleged US$4.5 billion was stolen from the state investment fund that was set up by Najib himself in 2009.

From Malaysia’s ‘first lady’ to ‘bag lady’: why Rosmah Mansor’s vast collection of Hermes Birkins caused a social media storm

During the election that removed Najib and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, 1MDB was a major talking point for the newly installed Pakatan Harapan government. It hammered the issue when canvassing in a country where cost of living is a big concern for many.

The scandal first came to light when reports emerged that investigators had traced US$680 million from the fund sent to Najib’s private account. Cash from the fund was meant to be spent on infrastructure ventures, but mounting evidence suggested money was being siphoned off for political and personal purposes, including allegedly into Najib and his family’s coffers.

As Prime Minister, Najib agreed to cooperate with an investigation – but only after sacking the Attorney Ggeneral, Abdul Gani Patail. He was subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing, with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) claiming the funds he received came from Arab benefactors.

In 2016 and 2017, the US justice department filed a series of forfeiture suits to seize assets valued at US$1.7 billion – including yachts, Picassos, luxury homes, jewellery, a private jet and cash set aside to produce Hollywood films.

Malaysian PM Mahathir begins big government clean up, but is his ruling coalition in a mess?

Malaysian financier Jho Low – known for trying to woo Paris Hilton and giving lingerie model Miranda Kerr extravagant jewellery – was ordered to turn over one such asset, the US$250 million superyacht Equanimity, to the US authorities two weeks ago.

Justice department documents say officials managing 1MDB embezzled and laundered US$4.5 billion between 2009 and 2014. The money trail crosses about 10 countries and several offshore accounts in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands. Besides Low, the lawsuits named Riza Aziz – Najib’s stepson – and “Malaysian Official 1” or MO1, which is widely believed to be Najib. And now the fund is saddled with billions of US dollars of debt – taken on via bonds sold by Goldman Sachs, the principal on which will be due in 2022.

 

Justice department documents say officials managing 1MDB embezzled and laundered US$4.5 billion between 2009 and 2014. The money trail crosses about 10 countries and several offshore accounts in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands. Besides Low, the lawsuits named Riza Aziz – Najib’s stepson – and “Malaysian Official 1” or MO1, which is widely believed to be Najib. And now the fund is saddled with billions of US dollars of debt – taken on via bonds sold by Goldman Sachs, the principal on which will be due in 2022.

Breaking Barisan Nasional’s 60-year grip on Malaysia was the easy part. Here’s Mahathir’s real challenge

Malaysia boleh: Mahathir’s return to power is more than a palace coup. It is a new era of hope

The political backlash, although not immediate, has gathered its own momentum: members of Najib’s own party began filing police reports, his detractors, including Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, formed a new political party helmed by former and current Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and the Barisan Nasional coalition was toppled after 61 years in power.

Pakatan Harapan is pursuing those responsible, now with the full force of government behind them.

Shocked and Awed

The Malaysian public has been stunned by revelation after revelation, beginning with the raids of Najib’s residences, which led the confiscation of 284 boxes of luxury handbags, massive amounts of jewellery, and stacks of cash totalling US$28.6 million – which Najib dismissed as campaign donations.

With all the heat coming down on the former prime minister, Najib has asked for witness protection, saying he was the target of death threats from foreigners linked to 1MDB. Following the raids, Najib was questioned for several hours by the MACC, while the newly minted finance minister, Lim Guan Eng, told reporters that the fund’s directors had confirmed its insolvency and inability to pay its debts.

 

The big reveal of this week though was not just that 1MDB has been gutted, but that the previous government had used the country’s main sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Holdings, and the central bank to pay off 1MDB debt – meaning the infestation had spread across the system, potentially contaminating these other pillars of the Malaysian economy.

In a strongly worded statement Lim called 1MDB Director Arul Kanda “utterly dishonest and untrustworthy, and instructed the legal advisers to the Ministry of Finance to review his position as the president of 1MDB”.

Kanda reiterated claims to This Week in Asia that Lim had cast him in a bad light, but refused to comment further.

James Chin, the Director of Asia Institute Tasmania think tank, said 1MDB was now being clearly presented to the Malaysian public as “a scam”. He noted that the ramifications of the meltdown would probably affect all large government projects and government-linked companies.

1MDB vs 38 Oxley Road: why Malaysia envies Singapore

“In terms of impact, this whole mess reaffirms what we know already: there is monkey business at the top of the [Barisan Nasional] food chain. The only difference is the scale, which we won’t know until the final audit. Mainly however, the layer of governance in federal and state projects and borrowings will be more closely studied by the markets, which is a good thing.”

A task force set up by Mahathir soon after he was elected to investigate 1MDB and reclaim its assets met US justice department and FBI officials on Thursday. The task force said US officials revealed that their requests from the past two years for the MACC and the attorney general’s office to cooperate in their investigation had been ignored.

The Singaporean Commercial Affairs Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said they were prepared to help Malaysian authorities with the investigation. The authority has fined eight banks and shut down Swiss private banks BSI and Falcon in Singapore, jailing several, after its own probe into 1MDB.

Meanwhile, Xavier Justo, a Swiss citizen who first blew the whistle on alleged impropriety at the fund, told Malaysian newspaper The Star that he would testify in any 1MDB-related trial.

Najib, who is banned from leaving Malaysia, has stoked public anger through a series of mistimed statements, including describing himself as unemployed despite still drawing a salary as a Member of Parliament. He also complained about Police helping themselves to chocolates in his fridge during the raid, and accusing Mahathir of only telling “half the story”.

How will Najib’s golfing buddy Trump treat Malaysia’s 1MDB probe?

“Words said and allegations made while in the opposition carry a very different weight now that you are in power and holding the positions of the finance minister or the prime minister,” he said, accusing the new government of slander.

Lim retaliated by detailing how the new government had discovered federal debt had reached US$250 billion; a combination of official debt, government guarantees for entities unable to service debts, and lease payments for projects such as roads and schools.

Mahathir also remained undeterred, saying he would not strike a deal under any circumstances with Najib, his former protégé turned rival.

And while Najib enjoys immunity as a former head of state, Mahathir can revoke it at any time, said lawyer Surendra Ananth, co-chair of the Malaysian Bar Constitutional Law Committee.

“State immunity is not personal. It is enjoyed by the state,” he said. “Such immunity, being enjoyed by the state, can be waived anytime.”

Political analyst Khoo Kay Peng said pursuing justice over the 1MDB financial scandal was Pakatan Harapan living up to its election pledge. “Individuals and companies that benefited from 1MDB funds could be raided too. It is going to be a long-haul process and require a lot of manpower from MACC.” ■

President Trump and Asia: Lest it’s misunderstood–America First

January 23, 2017

President Trump and getting on the front foot in Asia: Lest it’s misunderstood–America First

 by  Editors, East Asia Forum

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2017/01/23/president-trump-and-getting-on-the-front-foot-in-asia/#more-54137

The inauguration of the 45th US President, Donald Trump, is a game-changer and the fallout threatens Asian interests perhaps more than those in any other part of the world.

The 45th President of the United States of America–Donald John Trump

‘For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry’, Trump declared in his inaugural speech, ‘[we’ve] subsidised the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; we’ve defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own; and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay’.

‘From this moment on, it’s going to be America First, America First’, Trump hailed. ‘Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength’.

That the United States under Trump would ‘reinforce old alliances and form new ones — and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism’ might provide a reassurance to allies in Asia and the Pacific, but one that is deeply qualified by the notion that paying for US deployments abroad is under scrutiny.

What is Donald Trump like and what will his presidency really be about? No one can know for certain: the only predictability about Trump is his unpredictability. But the experts on Trump, those who have studied his life and career and written his biographies, are clear on three things.

‘They see the same person they’ve always seen — the consummate classroom troublemaker; a vain, insecure bully; and an anti-institutional schemer, as adept at ‘gaming the system’ as he is unashamed of that. As they look ahead … to his administration … they feel confident predicting that he will run the country much as he has run his company: for himself’.

Apart from his father, Donald Trump’s chief mentor in life was Roy Cohn, a Joe McCarthy henchman, ‘a guy who stood for cold-eye calculus about how bullying people works’.

The world out there, without its norms or conventions, for which Trump on his record has no respect, is a bigger bully pit than even he has had to deal thus far in his career. On all the evidence we have, there is zero chance that in the fights he picks with world leaders Trump will be capable of separating personal pique from his country’s interests — let alone the interests of the broader public.

Nothing about inauguration day has allayed the two main anxieties for Asia that have been fuelled by the harbingers of radical change under a Trump presidency.

The old certainties that brought prosperity and a significant measure of stability to world affairs for over three-quarters of a century after the Second World War are no longer clear.

The US anchor of the Western security system, on which order in Asia and the Pacific has relied, may be being weighed.

The institutional edifice on which economic certainty and political confidence in the US-led global order has been built — the postwar institutional framework that guaranteed economic openness and the prospect of economic and political security — is under threat as Trump appears bent on trade wars and calls for protectionism. This is not a narrowly economic problem: it affects the global security outlook and especially economic and political security in Asia and the Pacific.

The comfortable view in Tokyo, Canberra and even in Beijing that Trump in election mode was all political rhetoric, and that US global economic and security strategies would largely remain undisturbed, has given way to deeper disquiet.

Reliance on the enduring operational verities of continuing strategic engagement with Washington, around the uncertainties that Trump brings to the game, is an increasingly doubtful refuge for the business-as-usual camp.

So how do we deal with the new Trump reality show in Asia?

Certainly not by sitting back and taking what the bully pit dishes up, argues Hitoshi Tanaka in this week’s lead essay. Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy rhetoric is moving the United States away from its traditional role as a global leader at a time when the domestic and international political environments are undergoing significant change, Tanaka points out. Japan, as the United States’ most important ally in Asia, has to get on the front foot in defining the kind of engagement it wants with America. Prime Minister Abe, Tanaka says, has been right to engage Trump early and, he might have added, to swing through Southeast Asia and Australia last week to seek common positions across the region.

The Giants of East Asia

‘Given that Trump appears keen on having Japan expand its share of the security burden’, says Tanaka, ‘the best option would be intensive US–Japan consultations that aim to forge a common approach to key challenges as an initial step toward a joint US–Japan strategy for the region’. The overarching objective would be to retain and enhance US engagement in Asia while bolstering Japan’s security roles and functions within the alliance framework, and its contributions to peace, without opening a regionally destabilising Pandora’s box’.

An important strategic priority among the four that Tanaka identifies is nurturing a stable and inclusive regional order. ‘On its current trajectory, the Asia-Pacific regional order risks fracturing into a two-tiered structure composed of the US-led liberal international order and an emerging Chinese sphere of influence’. The United States and Japan should prioritise engagement with China and find a new way to coordinate among regional institutions and advance cooperation among Asian powers. This requires rapid and immediate elevation of consultation among the Asian powers.Sitting back and relying on old default settings is unlikely to work in the new bully pit.

In the new Trump era, Prime Minister Abe, on regional engagement, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the importance of economic globalisation at Davos, have both set good examples of getting on the front foot in Asia. One hopes that other Asian leaders, individually and collectively, will quickly follow suit.

The EAF Editorial Group is comprised of Peter Drysdale, Shiro Armstrong, Ben Ascione, Ryan Manuel, Amy King and Jillian Mowbray-Tsutsumi and is located in the Crawford School of Public Policy in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

SHARE:

Japan-US Alliance in the Trumpian Era

by Hitoshi Tanaka, JCIE

Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency came as a major surprise to Japan and the rest of Asia. And Trump’s controversial campaign rhetoric has brought into question the pillars of US foreign policy, including the value of US alliance relationships, its commitment to free trade and its willingness to protect regional stability in the Asia Pacific.

Yet the region must find a way to work with the Trump presidency. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signalled Japan’s intention to do so by becoming the first foreign leader to meet with President-elect Trump on 17 November. Looking ahead, the region faces a number of challenges that require intensive consultation and cooperation.

Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy rhetoric appears to be moving the United States away from its traditional role as a global leader at a time when the domestic and international political environments are undergoing significant change. Continued US leadership and intensive cooperation with allies and partners will remain critical to the maintenance of regional peace and prosperity.

While the Trump administration contemplates its foreign policy approach, America’s allies must review their regional approaches as well. Given that Japan remains the most important US ally in Asia, the two countries need to move forward and further build up the infrastructure of the alliance.

Japan has responded to the changing security environment with a remarkable suite of defence reforms aimed at expanding its ‘proactive contributions to peace’. Japan will need to continue to expand its contributions, but must do so in a way that is anchored by its identity as a peace-loving nation that does not use military means to pursue its economic or political agenda.

Given that Trump appears keen on having Japan expand its share of the security burden, the best option would be intensive US–Japan consultations that aim to forge a common approach to key challenges as an initial step toward a joint US–Japan strategy for the region. The overarching objective would be to retain and enhance US engagement in Asia while bolstering Japan’s security roles and functions within the alliance framework, and its contributions to peace, without opening a regionally destabilising Pandora’s box.

The Trump and Abe administrations should focus on four key areas. First, a new approach towards North Korea is necessary. ‘Strategic patience’ has failed to change North Korean behaviour. The Kim Jong-un regime is edging closer to producing a miniaturised nuclear warhead that can be mounted on a long-range missile. This poses a serious threat.

Resolving the situation on the Korean Peninsula requires comprehensive and coordinated efforts between the United States, Japan and South Korea to bring China into the fold. Beijing is still hesitant to apply crippling pressure to the extent that it would seriously undermine the Kim Jong-un regime’s political control and run the risk of causing North Korean collapse. The United States, South Korea and Japan must do more to reassure China that a full break with the regime in Pyongyang will not end up being antithetical to its national interests. This requires joint contingency planning among the allies as well as intensive discussions with China to prepare for worst-case scenarios on the peninsula.

Second, greater confidence-building among the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea is sorely needed in order to de-escalate tensions, defuse nationalism and build relations rooted in win–win cooperation. While this may be hard to envision based on Trump’s election rhetoric, operational-level cooperation that is already underway between the United States, Japan and other likeminded countries in the region can gradually be expanded.

The third priority is nurturing a stable and inclusive regional order. On its current trajectory, the Asia-Pacific regional order risks fracturing into a two-tiered structure comprised of the US-led liberal international order and an emerging Chinese sphere of influence. The United States and Japan should prioritise engagement with China. They need to find some way to coordinate among regional institutions and advance functional cooperation among Asian powers.

Though the Trump administration is likely to place lower priority on international institutions, it is in the US interest to find some way to promote smoother coordination between the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the One Belt, One Road initiative on the one hand and the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank on the other.

Finally, the United States will need to find a balance between cooperation with Russia in areas of mutual interest and maintaining a unified front within the international community against unlawful Russian behaviour, such as its unilateral annexation of Crimea in March 2014. There is a strong need for intense consultations between Japan and the United States on this front.

There is a deep sense of uncertainty about the future role of the United States in East Asia. As Trump takes office, it will be crucial that his team makes a concerted effort to understand the positions of US allies and friends. As US domestic politics and the regional balance of power undergo changes, intensive consultations and cooperation with allies and partners will be critical. Forging a joint approach on key regional challenges in a way that opens the door to a shared US–Japan strategy will benefit both countries.

Hitoshi Tanaka is a senior fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange and chairman of the Institute for International Strategy at the Japan Research Institute, Ltd. He previously served as Japan’s deputy minister for foreign affairs.

 This article is an extract from East Asia Insights Vol. 11 No. 3 December 2016, which is available in full here, and is reprinted with the kind permission of JCIE.

 

Don’t Make Kevin Morais a Hero, says Raja Petra Kamaruddin

November 27, 2015

http://www.malaysia-today.net/stop-turning-kevin-morais-into-a-fooking-hero/

The bottom line is: Kevin was not a saint and hero as many are now saying he was. He was just one more slime ball and scumbag. And he served his masters in the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), MACC, and the Attorney General’s Chambers to fix up innocent people on fabricated charges. And he was NOT murdered on the orders of the Prime Minister, as some are insinuating. He was murdered because he did dirty deals and those who do dirty deals normally risk that sort of retaliation and retribution. That is called payback.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

RPK and The Dilemma

Anwar Ibrahim was an  enigma to many of you people. Well, at least while he was in UMNO and when he whacked Chinese schools and Hindu temples and helped make many corrupt China men and Malays extremely rich. And then he became God’s gift to Malaysia and the person who was going to become Prime Minister and who will save the country from the very party that he tried to take over but failed — meaning UMNO, of course.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a dilemma to many of you people. Well, at least when he threw Anwar into jail and detained so many people without trial and killed so many people in Memali and spent RM100-200 billion of the country’s money and destroyed the judiciary, etc. And then he became God’s gift to Malaysia and the person who was going to save Malaysia by ousting Prime Minister Najib Razak and replace him with a puppet who will rule Malaysia by proxy with a Council of Elders telling him what to do.

Kevin Anthony Morais was a scumbag to many of you people. Well, at least when he tried to fix up lawyer Rosli Dahlan on fabricated charges on behalf of the A-G and IGP who wanted to bring down the Director of the CCID who was investigating the shenanigans in MAS that led all the way to those who walked in the corridors of power. And then he became Malaysia’s latest hero because he was murdered for reasons we do not know yet but which everyone assumes must have something to do with the Prime Minister because that story sounds nicer than the other story even if the other story may be true.

Well, Malaysians have short memories, as Dr Mahathir is fond of saying. So they forgot what Din Merican wrote five years ago in December 2010 (READ HERE). Amongst what Din said were:

On Monday December 20, Lawyer Rosli Dahlan will be in the dock of the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to be adjudged whether he is guilty or innocent of the charge brought against him by A-G Gani Patail using the MACC. That will be the verdict by a court of law.

I have attended Rosli Dahlan’s trial from Day 1 until it ended. I know the charge, I know the facts, I have seen the MACC witnesses in action giving evidence ,and I have heard the MACC DPPs delivering their submissions. I will now pronounce this verdict by the court of public opinion.

The accuser is Senior DPP cum Assistant Director of Legal & Prosecution MACC, Anthony Kevin Morais. He prefers to use his second name as his first and thus he is called Kevin rather than Anthony. Kevin regards himself as learned in the law with wide powers conferred on him by the MACC Act and its predecessor legislations. Kevin does not like to be questioned as to his decision making, a trait passed down from the Attorney- General Gani Patail himself. The philosophy of power that this higher echelon of the A-G’s Chambers subscribe to is that “We command, you abide”.

He looks rather youthful for his age. He is a dapper dresser and is very well-groomed, putting to shame some of the shabby looking lady DPPs. He powders his face, puts on mascara, rouge and lip gloss when he is in court with well manicured finger nails. With such attention to personal vanity, he looks even more attractive outside of office hours.

Kevin’s sexual orientation is unknown although Malaysia Today’s report out of London suggests that he has an older English boyfriend whom he spent time with last Christmas. He is unmarried, and it is doubtful if he ever will, at least not in Malaysia. As such, there is nothing to be said of his family values.

Although born a Catholic, his present lifestyle would invite ex-communication by the Pope in the Vatican. Because of the predominant number of Malays in the Legal and Judicial Service, his flair of the English language places him amongst the more competent government lawyers. Thus he interprets the law as he wants to, and not as how it should be.

Kevin hopes to be a Judge one day to fill in the vacuum left by another Indian Judge with an English sounding name, Justice Augustine Paul, whose eminence was in ruling every piece of defence evidence in Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy I as “Irrelevant”. Consequently, the Good Lord rendered him irrelevant by recalling him to permanent abode six feet underground.

Life was all sunshine and rosy for Rosli Dahlan – he had a good happy family, his firm had expanded, his practice was flourishing. Nothing, it seemed, could have gone wrong, that was until Rosli decided to defend his friend, the former Director of Commercial Crimes Investigations Dept (CCID), Commissioner of Police Dato’ Ramli Yusuff. Since 2006, Ramli was targeted to be eliminated from PDRM by former IGP Musa Hassan and by A-G Gani Patail.

Musa Hassan had to eliminate Ramli because Ramli had discovered his links with the BK Tan syndicate which was about to nationalise and corporatise the illegal money-lending Along syndicates. Gani Patail wanted to eliminate Ramli because Ramli had recommended that the former MAS Chairman, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli, should be charged for various offences, whereas Gani Patail had already cut a deal with Tajuddin’s proxy – Shahidan Shafie.

You can read more about that case HERE, which Din Merican has laid out in detail.

The bottom line is: Kevin was not a saint and hero as many are now saying he was. He was just one more slime ball and scumbag. And he served his masters in the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), MACC, and the Attorney General’s Chambers to fix up innocent people on fabricated charges. And he was NOT murdered on the orders of the Prime Minister, as some are insinuating. He was murdered because he did dirty deals and those who do dirty deals normally risk that sort of retaliation and retribution. That is called payback.

 

 

Slain Malaysian Prosecutor Tied to Najib Probe

November 27, 2015

by John Berthelsen

http://www.asiasentinel.com

Brother of victim found in oil drum contradicts AG’s claim the dead man had nothing to do with case.

 Dato’Anthony Kevin Morais

Morais apparently had been strangled although that is uncertain since his body was cremated before his brother, Charles Suresh Morais, an Atlanta, Georgia businessman, could order a second autopsy. The story involves an astonishing series of twists and turns, including possible links to the 2013 murder of a prominent banker in a Kuala Lumpur temple parking lot.

Morais’s body disappeared from a Kuala Lumpur hospital mortuary despite pleas by the brother, Charles, for a second autopsy. The body was claimed and cremated over Charles’ objections by

another brother, Richard, who has been in constant trouble with the law and who figured in the 2013 murder of the late Arab Malaysian Bank founder Hussain Najadi.  The bank is now known as AmBank.

Car rammed, prosecutor abducted

Surveillance footage from a CCTV camera the day the 55-year-old Kevin Morais disappeared showed his car being followed and rammed by another. He was reportedly abducted after the collision and was never seen alive again. One of the seven suspects arrested after the footage identified the car in the collision led investigators to a suburb near Kuala Lumpur where Morais’s body, encased in the oil drum, had been rolled into a river. 

Morais had been seconded from the Attorney-General’s Chambers to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which was looking into financial irregularities involving the troubled 1Malaysia Development Bhd. state-backed investment fund and other issues.

In July, Najib fired the Attorney-Ggeneral, Abdul Gani Patail, one of a dramatic series of events that included forcing out the Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, transferring the deputy head of the police special branch intelligence division, neutralizing a special parliamentary committee seeking answers over corruption, questioning seven members of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over leaks about the case, sending the head of the MACC “on vacation” and threatening any and all critics with sedition charges.   

Today, a source said, the commission investigators are terrified and believe they are in danger, followed by Special Branch police, over suspicions they had leaked details of the investigation to Clare Rewcastle Brown, the editor of the UK-based Sarawak Report, which has been deeply involved in investigating the 1MDB case and broken most of the important stories. The leaker, Charles Morais said, may have been his dead brother because anonymous emails to Rewcastle Brown were signed by “jibby@anonymousspeech.com.” “ Jibby,” Charles Morais said  was a nickname for a Morais family friend. However, it is also a derisory nickname used by many for Najib himself.

Najib crony Mohd Apandi Ali, the Attorney-General picked to replace Gani Patail – who is also a lawyer connected to the United Malays National Organization, which Najib heads,  had previously dismissed the alleged draft charge sheet as false. The office denied Kevin Morais was working on the Najib case, which appears to have disappeared.

Although prosecutors said the mastermind was actually a military doctor who had been prosecuted by Morais recently in a graft case, Charles Morais called for the case to be revisited. 

A thumb drive of evidence

In a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on November 26, Charles Morais, who had flown back to Malaysia from the US, said he had received a mobile USB storage device from his brother shortly before his death, dealing with investigations he was looking into, as well as an alleged draft charge sheet against the prime minister which was released by Sarawak Report and carried the initials of his brother. Morais said that when he saw the alleged draft charge sheet, he recognized his brother’s initials. 

To a police demand that he turn over the USB device for investigation, Charles Morais said the device is in safekeeping in Atlanta, and that he didn’t trust the Police enough to give it to them.

Charles Morais

“Two to three months before Kevin’s demise, he told me that he was working on a case involving the prime minister and his wife,” Charles Morais said in the sworn document. “He said the prime minister was a terrible guy but that his wife was worse. He actually used the words kolata ala. (Eds: These were Malayalam (a Dravidian dialect spoken in the Indian state of Kerala) and translated into English meaning ‘a person up to no good’. He told me his phone might be tapped and to be careful what I said. That is why half of our conversations were usually in Malayalam.”

Read the statutory declaration of Charles Morais here.

Dead man couriers possible evidence to brother

In mid-August, Morais said, his brother, who in frequent telephone calls said he was increasingly depressed and wanted to retire to London, emailed him telling him he would courier something to him and “to watch out for it as he wanted me to keep it in safe custody. This was the last call I received from Kevin and was about a week before he went missing.” 

Morais called Abdul Gani Patail, the cashiered Attorney-Ggeneral, twice in the attempt to find his brother.  On the second call, Gani Patail answered, saying: “Please remain calm, I am not working there any more. What I have been told is that the police are working relentlessly on the matter.”

Notified that his brother was dead, Charles Morais flew back to Malaysia and went to the mortuary to meet his two brothers, with Richard demanding to leave with Kevin’s body despite the fact that Kevin had broken with him 14 years before.

Connection to AmBank murder

Richard Morais has a checkered history. He has been in frequent trouble with the law in both Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Pascal Najadi, the son of the AmBank founder Hussain Najadi, who was assassinated in the car park of a Kuala Lumpur temple in 2013, has charged that no real investigation of the crime has taken place.  Najadi said Richard Morais had requested that his father go to the temple to attempt to settle business dispute that that the murderer was waiting for him.

Pascal Najadi, now a banking consultant in Moscow who says he fears for his own life and has employed bodyguards,  has raised questions over whether his father’s refusal to play along with UMNO financial irregularities led to his death.  On two occasions shortly before he was killed, Najadi said, his father complained about UMNO corruption.  Najadi has repeatedly called for the investigation of his father’s death to be reopened.

On the first occasion, during a lunch at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, he told his son he had been approached by unnamed high-ranking UMNO officials to orchestrate a multi-billion  ringgit property deal connected to the Kuala Lumpur City Center that Hussain characterized as clearly illegal and “told them to go fly a kite.” On the second occasion, he told his son that Najib was “lining his pockets with billions of ringgit with no consideration for the future of the country.”

The speculation is that the funds deposited with AmBank came from companies connected to the 1MDB, which has RM42 billion in liabilities, an unknown amount of that unfunded, and is struggling to meet its payments. 

Mastermind arrested, mysteriously freed

Police identified a Malacca nightclub owner, Lim Yuen Soo as the mastermind who paid to have Najadi shot. Lim disappeared for more than two years, with a red alert issued by Interpol at the behest of the Kuala Lumpur police although sources say he seemed to be in and out of Kuala Lumpur regularly. Police arrested him at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in late October, but turned him loose eight days later for lack of evidence, raising a multitude of questions over how he could have been identified as the mastermind for two years only to be freed almost immediately when he was caught.  Since the murder case involving Hussain Najadi was closed,  there are questions why it hasn’t been reopened to find another mastermind behind the killing. 

That has raised additional questions whether Lim – and Richard Morais — have friends in Malaysia’s high political circles. Despite his status –until recently – as a fugitive, Lim is the registered part owner of the Active Force Security Services Sdn Bhd. with the former Malacca Police Chief Mohd Khasni Mohd Nor.

Death of Kevin Morais: MACC should settle and let him rest in peace

September 23, 2015

by Din Merican

Freemalaysiatoday (FMT) and all the news portals reported about the effect of Kevin Morais’ death on the case of  abuse of power and malicious prosecution that my brave and brillaint friend Lawyer Rosli Dahlan had initiated against former A-G Gani Patail, Kevin Morais, Abu Kassim and 11 other defendants.

A case that can teach MACC to be humble

See:

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2015/09/22/a-case-that-can-teach-macc-to-be-humble/

These are the people who did bad things to Rosli. FMT correctly asked what has become of the MACC and the key players that are supposed to combat corruption but instead was used as a tool of oppression against an innocent man?

It appears that the MACC is now almost decimated and its reputation in complete tatters. The MACC’s No. 1 and No. 2 are now nowhere to be seen since the 1MDB fiasco and RM2.6 billion found in PM Najib Razak’s Private Banking account.

MACC’s Adviser Tan Sri Rashpal Singh, Head of AMLA Jessica Gurmit Kaur, and prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy were arrested together with two MACC directors Bahri Md Zain and Rohaizad Yaakub, who were then transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department..

MACC’s Tan Sri Abu Kassim (above) named as the 1st Defendant in Rosli’ suit is said to be recovering from a back surgery as a camouflage for MACC’s inaction. Many including me remain unconvinced and have called him a general who abandoned his troops in the middle of a battle. MACC officer Mohan Muthaiyah, who brutally arrested and handcuffed Rosli until his wrist bled, was himself charged for corruption and was convicted.

A-G Gani Patail himself was unceremoniously sacked and has totally disappeared from public eye. And most recently, Kevin Morais’ dead body was buried cast in cement in an oil drum. Such a tragic and grisly death. So what happens to the case against them?

FMT mentioned about Rosli’s 2012 letter to Abu Kassim which is very prophetic:

“I implore you not to allow this sacred institution (MACC) to be used as tool of oppression and persecution in the guise of false prosecution against innocent citizens. Otherwise, you will one day see your own hands in the destruction of t‎his institution.”-Rosli Dahlan

Instead of settling, the MACC and Gani Patail chose to test their  immunity in court which resulted in Judge Wazeer Alam Mydin Meera delivering this damning judgement: “The claim of absolute immunity is anathema to the modern notion of democracy and accountability and against the Rule of Law.”

I wrote previously that at times I sympathise with Lawyer Rosli seeing him soldiering on with his case despite all the obstacles. The latest now is that Kevin’s death will force a substitution requiring Kevin’s Estate to be made a defendant. And Rosli was so magnanimous expressing deep sympathy to Kevin’s family and agreeing to give them as much time as is needed to sort out the technical issue of substitution.

On the other hand, MACC seemed unremorseful. MACC is still playing  the PR game using Kevin’s death to boost its image. MACC recently announced that it had named its moot court after Kevin in his honour. It is such a cheesy thing to do instead of doing something really meaningful.

A moot court is a play court not a real court. If MACC seriously wants to honour Kevin, they should not allow this case to drag on where Kevin’s estate will now be a defendant. It will be as if Kevin’s ghost lingers on without finding peace. It will be as if the ghost of Kevin’s past will not be allowed to rest.

This is one case that the forces of nature has not favoured the MACC and these defendant officers from the beginming. This is one case that God is showing His might and power of retribution. This is the case that Attorney-General Chambers  should not tempt God to show what else can happen. This is one case that the MACC should learn some humility by apologising to Rosli and settle, and let the ghost of Kevin Anthony Morais rest in peace! Let justice prevail.

Read also :

https://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/macc-bahri-till-kingdom-come/

https://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/many-happy-returns-of-the-day-rosli-dahlan/