Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Najib is Now Top 50 Richest Man in Malaysia

Congratulations to Najib. Now you are the 27th richest man in Malaysia. You have just made it into Forbes Malaysia's 50 richest man in Malaysia. And this is how you got there:

US$619m (RM2.35b) - Fund Transfer from Tanore Finance 21-3-2013
US$61m (RM231m) - Fund Transfer from Tanore Finance 25-3-2013
RM27m - Fund Transfer from Ihsan Perdana 26-12-2014
RM5m - Fund Transfer from Ihsan Perdana 27-12-2014
RM10m - Fund Transfer from Ihsan Perdana 10-2-2015

TOTAL - RM2,621b


He is so sure of himself that all these 5 transfers were made to his own name in his own account at AmBank which was subsequently closed, after photos of his checks and transfers were made public by the SarawakReport. In legal term, this is no doubt money-laundering, though the Inspector-General of Police in Malaysia would not agree for obvious reason.




Friday, July 10, 2015

'Najib & Co' pinpointed by son of slain AmBank founder


Pascal Najadi, the son of murdered Ambank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi, repeated his assertions disputing police disclosures his father’s death was not related to 1MDB. “By simply denying, that there was no link to 1MDB and the assassination of my father (Hussain Najadi), the IGP draws even more attention from us the family and the general public,” his Facebook post read.

“How come he can say this as there has been no investigation? More, this is not his field of competence, it is the duty of the Attorney-General to pursue this case as it is a criminal offence that was committed in Malaysia and the mastermind killer is known to the Malaysians and to the world through Interpol under Article 145 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia,” his post from St Petersburg Russia read, adding his call on readers to report and tweet his comment. Pascal’s comment came in the wake of yesterday’s disclosure by IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar that the 2013 fatal shooting of Hussain Ahmad was not linked to 1MDB.

“We completed our investigations following and we know the motive behind the incident.” he responded to media queries at KL Sentral yesterday. Khalid refuted Pascal’s claims saying that the son had based his claims and assertions on hearsay and blog postings. The IGP also dismissed conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting saying they were baseless and malicious.

In the wake of the IGP’s statement, Pascal called on Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail to intervene into the matter. Hussain was shot dead outside the Kuan Yin temple in Jalan Ceylon, on July 29, 2013, while his wife Cheong Mei Kuen cheated death when a lone gunman opened fire on them. The motives behind the killing was never clearly established.

Taxi driver Chew Siang Chee was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his participation in the killing, while tow truck driver Koong Swee Kwan was identified to be the gunman and found guilty of murder last year, and sentenced to death. Koong was also sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for attempting to murder Najadi’s wife Cheong.

Pascal Najadi also gave his opinions on the future of Malaysia...

Who could have thought that the crisp news on US$700 million that went missing in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s private bank accounts could present itself as a real chance for Malaysia and all Malaysians?

More precisely, according to the Sarawak Report and Wall Street Journal,  US$681,999,976 (RM2.6 billion) was separately wire-transferred from the Singapore branch of the private bank owned by the Abu Dhabi fund Aabar into the prime minister’s private AmBank account in Kuala Lumpur, on March 2013, just in advance of the calling of the general election.

This is a tall order of an alleged now made public super heist well worth a few questions to be raised.

Where we leave now Justice to do a thorough diligent forensic on the US$700 million which allegedly, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal, were literally stolen from Malaysian coffers, one can or should take a broader look at the Malaysian state of affairs of today.
A chance for necessary renewal and multi-layered cleansing out of 58 years of Umno-grown corruption presents itself uniquely and perhaps most timely on July 3, 2015.

Malaysia today is no longer a champion of natural resources. Petronas is no longer a bulge bracket global oil company, it never really was.

Education standards in Malaysia are nearing those of established Third World countries and Vision 2020 is not an agenda but a pipe dream that will never come through.

Malaysia never offered equality to all of her citizens. My late father Hussain Najadi, the founder of AM Bank Group, Malaysia's fifth largest bank, was brutally assassinated on July 29, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur in broad daylight, the investigation and police work on finding the masterminds stopped long time ago back in 2013.

We, as a family in fear of our wellbeing, left Malaysia early 2014 for good, sold all our assets and now feel safe in Switzerland and the Russian Federation. And so on and so forth.

The list of shortcomings of Malaysia or better of a failed state, an inherently corrupt Umno and unresolved assassinations in Malaysia is far too long for this short op-ed here.

We take a look in to the core and history of Malaysian politics. The dominating Umno is exclusively run by Malays and has never allowed all Malaysians, with the Chinese Malaysians and the Indian Malaysians, to partake.

Consequently, since independence, each of Malaysia's six prime ministers has been Malay Umno members, starting with the late Tunku Abdul Rahman becoming the first chief minister of Malaya on August 1, 1955 under Queen Elizabeth II and later becoming the first prime minister on August 31, 1957, the day of independence from British rule.

Today, Najib assumes the office of the prime minister, like his good late father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein did brilliantly so as the second prime minister from 1970 to 1976.

Razak is regarded widely as been a thorough honest man, died not rich and my late father dealt with him when helping to develop post-British ruled Malaysia back then by founding the Arab-Malaysian Development Bank in 1974 – today's fifth largest bank, AmBank Group.

Ironic, epic, is the fact that my late father founded that bank with the blessings of Tun Razak in 1974. Bank Negara then being the majority shareholder with my father bringing it in the early 1980s to the public via the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange and today, the corruption money of Najib being uncovered in the media on private accounts held by him with AmBank. Karma was at heavy duty work.

This seriously corrupt Umno system has morphed from preferring the Malay race into the most unfortunate of all capital mistakes that one can do, to playing the religious card.

To get religion out of a system of government, history has taught us plenty of examples over the past centuries, blood was the ink used to protocol barbaric events now printed with black ink in our history books.

Those religion-based government system-reset-events were cataclysm spiked epic battles and armed conflicts with human casualties accounted for in large numbers.

All Malaysians are now tested not to let this happen and the government, if serious about being a responsible government, must now use this latest headline of a massive corruption as a unique chance to readjust its course.

Political systems and institutions in history never went a step backwards, they only moved and move forward. The question is the heading, more to the left, centre or to the right.

But when the carriage is in full speed and inertia races it forward too close and 90 degrees towards a concrete wall, a crash can no longer be prevented, the crash will occur. Simple laws of physics can be translated on many occasions into systemic government risks.

Risk is omnipresent for humans. We have to understand and manage risks 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days year on year, permanently perpetually.

Risk management was never in the book of the Malay-ruled Umno-dominated landscape, corruption took care of not exposing those risks, no one cared and now this risk has bitten Malaysians with a vengeance.

Too late to avert but not too late to manage, although the time is running out faster than Malaysia will be able to cope with.

Malaysia and all Malaysian passport holders of all walks of life, all religions now have the last call, the last remaining chance to take charge, to peacefully unite and to reset Malaysia, to manage the risks that become more and more visible as a serious threat to its raison d'etre its credibility its existence.

To make the system better, to learn from all the decades of mistakes and corruption that now bring Malaysia to her knees, certified now a failed state by my personal opinion. It will take many future generations to mend, to rebuild but a start is a start even when starting from the rubbles of corruption.

The US$700 million fraud allegations, theft of Najib presented to the world via Wall Street Journal, CNBC et al based on bank accounts and documents surfaced to see the light of the day by the Sarawak Report present perhaps for the first time since 1957 a serious question that is worth more than US$700 million. Can Malaysia survive this?

The answer is, maybe just, but only if it can clean the out itself from the rot that has been fermenting since the day independence. Umno must refurbish drastically, change its charter, must allow all Malaysians to participate.

One Malaysian citizen being one vote to count, regardless of race and religion. The simple answer to this most complicated question relates to common sense.

Malaysians time to lead their nation has come and it will be at a hefty cost of the Malays, them losing their preferred status through race, handouts, pocket linings, their posh London mansions, their Ferraris, Bentleys, private jets, Hermes bags and what not. This is the cost to avert a perhaps much more serious conflict. It probably is a cost well worth every penny of it.


* Pascal Najadi is the founder president of the international private Swiss merchant banking advisory firm A.S. Najadi & Partners.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of this blog.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Unsung Billionaire via Donations


There are more billionaires in Malaysia than you think you can count. But this is a special one. Najib said these money in his account are donations from his political fan.

Corruption is now non-existent in Malaysia, as it is now officially embraced into the culture of Malaysia or at least culture of UMNO, and the right word to use is donation, not corruption. Anyone criticizing this culture or tradition, is liable to be jailed. This is what you get when a thief become the Emperor.

Investigations into debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) have uncovered billions of ringgit being channelled to the personal accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Sarawak Report reported.

Both are quoting from documents from the 1MDB probe that is being carried out by the Malaysian government, with Sarawak Report claiming that the Attorney-General was also aware of the information.

The documents show that US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) was moved among government agencies, banks and entities linked to 1MDB and finally ending up in the prime minister's personal accounts in five separate deposits, WSJ said.

It said that the largest transactions were deposits of US$620 million and another one for US$61 million in March 2013, two months before the general election was held. Look like he bought himself the Prime Minister's Office.

However, Putrajaya has denied the reports, saying Najib has not made use of any public funds.

"The prime minister has not taken any funds for personal use,” a Putrajaya spokesman said, without giving any evidence, or explaining how he got to know this.

“The prime minister’s political opponents, unwilling to accept his record or the facts, continue to try to undermine him with baseless smears and rumours for pure political gain.”

Of course, this was said before Najib came out to admit taking the money as donations. PM Najib's spokesman desperately holding on to any political credibility left.

Meanwhile, an 1MDB spokesman said, referring to the transfers into Najib’s account: “1MDB is not aware of any such transactions, nor has it seen any documents to this effect.” Given that PM Najib is also the Finance Minister, we have a pretty good idea where these documents have gone to by now.

The spokesman cautioned that doctored documents have been used in the past to discredit 1MDB and the government.

Sarawak Report said RM42 million had gone into Najib's accounts from SRC International Sdn Bhd, the Finance Ministry-owned company that had taken a RM4 billion loan from the
Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP).

"The money taken from SRC International is a particularly shocking revelation, because this was money lent by the public pension fund KWAP and never accounted for," the report said.

The Finance Ministry had said previously SRC invested the funds in Gobi Coal & Energy Ltd, a Mongolian-based company, but provided no other details than that.

A director of SRC, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, the report said, had power of attorney over Najib’s accounts, according to documents acquired from the investigation.

The latest transaction, the reports said, was in February this year. The documents show that SRC International had transferred RM10 million into an account under the name of “Dato’Sri Mohd Najib Bin Hj Abd Razak” at AmPrivate Bank in Kuala Lumpur.

WSJ also reported that SRC and the bank refused to comment on the matter.

1MDB is currently the subject of inquiries by a number of authorities, including the auditor-general, Bank Negara, police and the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee.

Najib, who is also finance minister and chairs 1MDB's advisory board, has come under severe criticism in recent months over a number of issues, including that of 1MDB which has amassed RM42 billion in debts after just six years of it being set up.

Yesterday, the prime minister admitted that he was depressed by the rumours linking him to 1MDB's controversial land deal with Tabung Haji, saying a responsible government would not use public funds to bail out a state-owned company. – July 3, 2015.