Monday, 25 July 2016
This is the end of Najib. He is an international pariah. The world now thinks he is a crook. He is a fraud. The world will want nothing to do with him. He will not be welcomed anywhere. When he speaks to the United Nations General Assembly next fall, there will be only 30 or so people in the room, mostly Malaysians. Other leaders will be embarrassed to be seen with him, to shake his hand, to be photographed with him. As for Rosmah, her credit at Hermes and Tiffany's and elsewhere is now cut off. Those luxury stores now know the money was not hers. It was stolen from the Malaysian people. They do not want to be complicit in international money laundering. They have their own reputations to protect.
Assalamu'alaikum
my friends, here's something to cheer us all up (the demise of Najib)
and something to make us despondent(we have no credible person that we
can put our trust in for the immediate future).
John
Malott (former US ambassador to Malaysia) in his commentary lists down
the next steps the US DoJ will take. It is a foreign policy doctrine
DXthat the US will not prosecute a sitting leader, except for extremely
serious crimes against humanity such as genocide. I particularly find
interesting his opinion about Rosmah being unable to shop anymore for
luxury items because branded companies do not want to be implicated in
money laundering.
What
John Malott writes should provide those in power many sleepless nights.
His comments are not to be taken lightly for he is a former US
Ambassador to Malaysia.
Syed Idid
John Malott : Former US ambassador to Malaysia : COMMENT
Some people were
surprised when I said that the US government’s seizure of assets -
condos, mansions, hotels, and art work - all of which were purchased
with money stolen from 1MDB and the Malaysian people - was only the
beginning.
It’s true. There’s lots more to come.
There will be
criminal indictments coming, most likely including Riza Aziz and Jho
Low, who both are very closely connected to Prime Minister Najib Razak.
There will be a
mention in a future criminal prosecution of an “unindicted
co-conspirator,” who now is widely known as ‘Malaysian Official 1’. When
he no longer is in office, he will be indicted in the US.
Here are some
thoughts about what happens next on the US side. The US government
already has seized these assets, or asked other governments, such as
Switzerland and the UK, to seize them.
So now Najib’s
stepson Riza and his close advisor Jho Low cannot sell anything or try
to get their money out of the US or other countries. They have been
blocked.
Under US law, the
next step is for Aziz, Jho Low, and others to try and prove in a court
of law that the assets that were seized from them truly were purchased
with their own money - and not from funds stolen from 1MDB.
Of course, they
cannot prove that. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
Department of Justice (DOJ) filing was meticulous, thorough, and totally
professional. The evidence is all there. It even includes the
transcripts of wiretapped phone calls of a panicked Jho Low talking to
his bankers.
Thanks to the FBI
and DOJ, it is so clear. We know where the money came from. It was
stolen from the Malaysian people, through 1MDB.
Your money, not ours
As US Attorney
General Loretta Lynch and the others pointed out many times, the money
was stolen from the people of Malaysia. The assets belong to them.
So the US
government will hold all of the seized assets - the real estate, the
paintings, the rights to ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, etc - in trust on behalf
of the people of Malaysia, from whom the money was stolen.
The assets will not belong to the US government.
(How ironic that the US attorney general seems to care more about this thievery than the Malaysian attorney-general does...)
In the meantime,
the US government will rent out Aziz's condo in New York and his Beverly
Hills house. It will take over the management of the hotels in New York
and Beverly Hills that were purchased by Jho Low with the stolen money.
The US government
will collect the profits from all future sales of the DVDs and TV
rights of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. The Monet and Van Gogh paintings
will go on exhibition somewhere, so everyone can enjoy. And so on.
And all of the
profit that is earned will be held in trust by the US government on
behalf of the Malaysian people. It is your money, not ours.
What about Rosmah’s son, Riza?
Young Riza will soon be homeless. The US government has seized his homes.
In order to save
itself and the films it has in production (including a new film about
George Washington, starring Leonardo DiCaprio), I predict that Red
Granite Pictures will get rid of Aziz.
So Aziz will be jobless, too.
When the US
government files criminal charges against Aziz (and I am sure they
will), they will ask the court to seize his passport so he cannot leave
the US.
The Malaysian
Embassy in Washington may try to defraud the US government and issue a
new passport to Aziz, with a new number, so he can leave the country. At
that point, we will see how efficient the US government is at catching
this.
If the Malaysian government asks for the seized assets to be transferred back to them, the US government will do so.
But will Najib do
that? No. If Najib asks for the money back, it means that he is
admitting that the money was stolen from the development fund that he
headed, that the stolen money went to his stepson and his "advisor" Jho
Low, and that he has been lying about this to the Malaysian people for
years.
So, of course he will never do that.
Asking for the money back will have to wait for a future prime minister.
And why would Najib want to ask "for the money back," when he and his family and cronies already have it - or have spent it?
An international pariah
From an
international viewpoint, this is the end of Najib. He is an
international pariah. The world now thinks he is a crook. He is a fraud.
The world will want nothing to do with him. He will not be welcomed
anywhere. When he speaks to the United Nations General Assembly next
fall, there will be only 30 or so people in the room, mostly Malaysians.
Other leaders will be embarrassed to be seen with him, to shake his hand, to be photographed with him.
As for Rosmah,
her credit at Hermes and Tiffany's and elsewhere is now cut off. Those
luxury stores now know the money was not hers. It was stolen from the
Malaysian people. They do not want to be complicit in international
money laundering. They have their own reputations to protect.
That is how the world will react. But how will the Malaysian people react? Will Najib get away with this, back in Malaysia?
I fear that the answer is yes. If so, it means that Malaysia is now in Mugabe-Land.
The
inspector-general of police (IGP) says that the US government never
asked for cooperation from the Malaysian government in their
investigation. Yet both the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)
and the FBI have said that they cooperated with each other in this
investigation. The IGP knows the truth, so why did he say otherwise? Why
did he lie?
The Malaysian AG
says that this is all speculation and innuendo, and that there is no
proof of the US government's charges. Yet the US government has issued a
very thorough, professional, and detailed 136-page filing of evidence
with the court. It is there for the AG to read. Instead, why did he
choose to insult the integrity of the US government?
Why did he lie?
As long as Malaysia’s IGP and AG continue to deny the truth in the face of the overwhelming facts, we know where this is going.
How ironic it is,
that is the US government – the FBI and the US attorney general – who
are doing the job that the IGP and Malaysian AG should be doing.
As US AG Lynch said, this is the Malaysian people’s money. It is not America’s.
We want to give it back to you.
JOHN MALOTT is a former US ambassador to Malaysia.
*************************************
DESIDERATA: to newly titled 1MO (1Malaysian Official), Desi says: You can run, butT your cannot hide! You can run for all your life, but the noose will tighten around your neck UNTIL ALL YOUR (and thy crooked wife's adorned with Permata!) CORRUPT MONIES ARE RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE/RAKYAT of Malaysia. You may have cronies working for you in "MalSia", but the 11foreign jurisdictions WILL FINALLT GET THEE! -- YL, Desi
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