Charging 1MDB critics may spur global probe into firm, Najib, says newsman

Persecuting an ex-Umno man and his lawyer for their campaigns against 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) could spur international agencies in their own probes into the troubled state firm and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin said. The former editor-in-chief of pro-Umno daily The New Straits Times said this could lead to more bank accounts and assets, including foreign homes, being frozen in countries, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Some of these countries’ agencies had already started their own investigations into 1MDB, while former Umno member Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, had also lodged reports with them. “Countries such as Singapore, Switzerland and the Hong Kong are strict when it comes to corruption and money laundering while the US is serious about the crime of conspiracy to defraud,” Kadir said in the latest posting of his blog, The Scribe. Khairuddin, 53, and his lawyer and Matthias Chang, 65, were charged on Monday under Section 124L of the Penal Code with sabotaging the nation’s banking and financial services system. Yet to the general public, these two are political martyrs, Kadir said. He was confident the attorney-general’s latest actions would embolden officers of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) who had integrity not to bow to intimidation. A-G Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had rejected expert recommendations by BNM to start criminal proceedings against 1MDB while at the same time approving the prosecutions of Khairuddin and Chang. “Thank God we are also seeing more senior officers such as BNM governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Special Branch deputy director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador and MACC deputy commissioner Datuk Seri Zakaria Jaffar speaking up because they do not want to be accused of conspiring in immorality. “We pray that nothing bad happens to courageous public servants such as Zeti,” Kadir said. The effect of these unjustified prosecutions will also see Malaysia turned into a laughing stock for the international community and will further erode their confidence in the country’s administrators and the economy, he said. “The international agencies have already shown their disdain for Malaysian agencies. “This is proven when their financial authorities have frozen accounts related to 1MDB and Interpol has rejected the request by Malaysian police to issue an arrest warrant against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown. “The Thai police have also not permitted Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to interview former PetroSaudi International executive (PSI), Xavier Andre Justo.” Justo was jailed in Thailand for blackmailing his former employer. Khalid previously said he was interested in Justo’s claims that he had forged emails from his employers on 1MDB business deals. Justo had said these forged emails were passed on to Malaysian opposition party leaders, Sarawak Report and The Edge Weekly. – October 14, 2015.