27 Aug 2016
KAQ’s obsession with cars led to his purchase of a Formula One Racing Team
The Luxembourg newspaper Luxemburger Wort reported
Thursday that it has emerged that at the end of June no less than 90
police, accompanied by prosecutors and a federal judge launched a
massive raid on the headquarters of the private bank Edmond de
Rothschild (BPERE).
The scale of the operation against a financial institution was
unprecedented the paper explained and it was linked to the bank’s
involvement in 1MDB, described as “possibly the largest money laundering
operations ever uncovered in the Grand Duchy”.
It means that yet another of the world’s most prestigious and in this
case oldest banks has been caught red-handed over its willingness to
handle the proceeds of grand-scale corruption from countries like
Malaysia.
Before the raid, the Chief Executive Arianne de Rothschild (see
featured image) had brushed aside journalists and laughed smugly when
assured by her associates that she and her bank were “untouchable”. It
was caught on camera.
The cause of the Luxembourg investigation lies with the banking
transactions carried out by the bank CEO Marc Ambroisien on behalf of
the now arrested former IPIC boss Khadem Al Qubaisi (KAQ).
Yacht Topaz – it is now evident that it was financed by money stolen from 1MDB
As earlier exposed by Sarawak Report, Ambroisien, who has now been
sacked, managed a web of private companies for KAQ, both during and
after his role as Chief Executive of the bank, using off-shore secrecy
to hide their activities. Ambroisien remained director of these
companies and also a number of French property holding companies on
KAQ’s behalf until just a few days ago.
Sarawak Report has demonstrated how
through these companies stolen 1MDB money was used to fund
multi-million dollar payments for the purchase of the Topaz super-yacht
attributed to the Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mansour, but used by KAQ and his
circle of friends, including Jho Low and Leo di Caprio.
Cash also flowed into the shareholder company which owns the Hakkasan
entertainment chain, which observers believe has seen over a billion
dollars worth of investment over the past four years.
Spot
the sponsorship logos! – After buying a 25% share in STR, the IPIC boss
then organised sponsorship by CEPSA, Nova Chemicals and Falcon Bank,
all of which he controlled
Another of the companies set up under KAQ’s Vasco Trust umbrella,
managed by BPERE, was the Luxembourg-registered Mondrion, which bought a
25% share in the Italian Formula One racing team Scuderia Torro Rosso
(STR) back in 2011.
That investment of 20 million euros took place not long after KAQ had
made his first serious cash from “commissions” over the Barclays Bank
bail out deal financed by IPIC, of which he was the CEO. Statements
show that between 2010 and 2012 almost $100 million was funnelled into
Vasco by KAQ.
KAQ’s personal investment – a 25% share of STR Formula One racing team –
Luxemburger Wort then detailed how the sovereign wealth fund
entrepreneur then apparently used his influence as the CEO of IPIC to
channel money into sponsoring the team in which he held such a
significant private stake.
IPIC subsidiaries used to sponsor STR included the Spanish oil giant CEPSA, Canada’s Nova Chemicals and Falcon Bank.
Indeed in 2013 speculation was rife that IPIC would buy up the whole team from majority owner Red Bull.
“The IPIC involvement is led by it’s boss Khadem Al Qubaisi,
who has been a regular fixture at Grands Prix in recent years and
informed paddock opinion sees this group becoming shareholders in a team
soon, perhaps Toro Rosso, depending on Red Bull’s long term strategy
for its junior team” [F1 commentary]
Pattern of conflict of interest
Analysis has shown that KAQ repeated this pattern, exhibiting a clear
conflict of interest in his management of a number of the key companies
he controlled within the IPIC group. Put simply, he employed public
money from the sovereign fund that he managed to back projects in which
he had privately invested.
Muscari, another Luxembourg company run by BPERE controlled the Cepsa tower building in Spain
The Financial Times has
already revealed, for example, how he located the CEPSA headquarters in
a building he himself had leased, thereby ensuring a very good return.
After all, Aabar is
believed to have lost at least $50 billion from its original $70 billion
cash base and the fund, along with its parent company IPIC, is now
being merged with the country’s other sovereign fund Mubadala.
Sarawak Report has further exposed how KAQ used Aabar to finance his
own company’s bid to buy out Europe’s most expensive building, the Santander complex in Madrid, and also to back a number of property ventures by his Tasameem Real Estate Company in New York. KAQ companies would take shares and Aabar would invest in the venture.
The KAQ obsession with fast cars,
yachts, racing teams and other entertainments also appears to have
featured as a major problem is this pattern of misappropriation
Richard
Branson signs a major investment agreement partnership with Mohamed
Badawy Al-Hussseiny, CEO of Aabar Investments of Abu Dhabi. July 28,
2009.
Indeed, one of the biggest loss-making enterprises into which Aabar
poured hundreds of millions of dollars was Richard Branson’s Virgin
Glactica project, which has collapsed after recent test-flight
disasters.
Mixing business with pleasure, Branson joined up with KAQ’s party-loving crowd in Cancun.
Branson partied with KAQ in Cancun and was featured with one of his youthful friends at the resort on Facebook.
But the project went down in flames at enormous cost, as did so many of the other grandiose ventures.
In fact, the disastrous
mismanagement of Aabar /IPIC and the arrest of its former boss KAQ
amidst a developing multi-billion dollar scandal, may well turn into a
key lesson for countries that are running sovereign wealth funds, which
are headed by political figures and beset by weak corporate governance.
Such organisations are set up to be corrupted.
But all this was well into
the future when the youthful Jho Low first approached Prime Minister
Najib in 2009 with his suggestion for a similar Arab-style sovereign
wealth fund for Malaysia.
KAQ – Obsessed with fast cars and racing teams
Since 1MDB was immediately
used to steal money, it is plain that his pitch had been that sovereign
wealth funds are a proven method of diverting billions under the
protective cover of ‘country to country’ joint ventures, diplomatic
deals and top official oversight.
Once Najib took the bait, Jho Low was soon linking up with his pal from Aabar to join the plunder.
Now that both of these
flamboyant, party-loving looters have come a cropper, Malaysia has
perhaps just one thing to be thankful of, which is that 1MDB’s $7
billion missing is far less than what is now missing from Aabar.
DESIDERATA: Often the following adage holds true: BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER~ YL, Desi
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