After wasting precious time dragging its feet, the Malaysia’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has finally tabled its findings to Parliament yesterday. The verdict – Prime Minister Najib Razak (*yawn*) is as clean as a whistle and as smooth as a baby’s butt. But really, does anyone out there expect a different result? Najib’s innocence was already casted in stone roughly 5-month ago.

The moment previous PAC chairman Nur Jazlan “forcefully” promoted as Deputy Home Minister while halfway through his investigation, everyone smelled a rat. And the day Hasan Arifin (Member of Parliament for Rompin) was named as new PAC chairman on 19 Oct, 2015, the writing was already on the wall that Najib would be pronounced “not guilty”.

 

But Najib’s fate still hadn’t been casted in the stone until something slipped out of Mr Hasan Arifin’s mouth. About a month after his appointment, the new PAC chairman had replied – “saya pun cari makan (I too need to earn a living)” – when reporters asked him why he would not summon Prime Minister Najib Razak for questioning in its investigation on 1MDB scandal.

There you have it. The findings of Parliament report on 1MDB scandal had already revealed itself 5 months ago, not yesterday. Only fools didn’t see it coming and had hoped somehow PM Najib would be implicated, either directly or indirectly. Still, for the sake of seeing how ridiculous the PAC hopes to hoodwink the domestic and international audience, here are PAC’s investigation reports.

 

• 1MDB’s former auditors Ernst & Young and KPMG had been replaced after insisting on seeing documents on some of the sovereign fund’s dealings.

 

• SRC International Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned Ministry of Finance subsidiary, borrowed RM4 billion from the government, but has no information as to who gave the instruction to channel RM42 million to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts.

 

• 1MDB had paid RM4.24 billion (about US$1.367 billion) to Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (Aabar Ltd) as security deposits in 2012, without approval of 1MDB’s board of directors.

 

• 1MDB wasn’t sure of Aabar Ltd ownership – whether the company actually linked to Abu Dhabi firm Aabar Investment PJS, or the International Petroleum Investmnet Corp (IPIC) – but paid them RM4.24 billion (US$1.367 billion) anyway.

 

• US$700 million of 1MDB’s fund were transferred to Good Star Limited (a company allegedly owned by Jho Low) without the approval of the 1MDB board.

 

• Full details of PAC report remains classified under the Official Secrets Act 1972.

There you have it (again). If one still couldn’t see how wash down the PAC report is, then one must be like what former premier Mahathir had said recently – deaf, dumb and blind. The very simple fact that the PAC report is to remain classified goes to show there’re more hidden dealing and wheeling after the lengthy 1-year investigation, otherwise why still being so secretive?

 

That’s fine because the 1MDB scandal was too obvious and the damage was too severe to be fixed by the PAC. What the PAC Chairman Hasan Arifin was entrusted to do was to contain the damage by leaving PM Najib out of the picture but makes the whole scandal to look as if it was caused by one guy alone – ex-1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.

It’s not enough to sacrifice ex-1MDB CEO Shahrol as the ultimate scapegoat. So the next person to get the blame is Mr Mismanagement. But hey, that would make the drama so Bollywood. What if Najib administration adds some spices, something rarely happens, as in having the 1MDB board of directors collectively offered their resignations?

 

Great, the conclusion of the 1MDB scandal had been agreed upon 5 months ago. PM Najib Razak is to be cleared of 1MDB scandal, as if he didn’t exist on planet Earth, despite him being the 1MDB chairman and the Minister of Finance. Jho Low is more sacred though, and his name cannot even be mentioned in the PAC report for obvious reason – he is Najib and Rosmah “courier man”.

It’s also agreed that ex-1MDB CEO Shahrol would take all the blame. But to make it more dramatic, Mr Shahrol isn’t supposed to admit all the wrongdoings without a fight. That would be too obvious, would it not? Shahrol would give a little non-lethal punch back, probably gets charged in a kangaroo court, which would most likely drag the trials beyond the next 14th national election, as they would usually do.

 

Hey, if Razak Baginda can been acquitted of abetment in the murder of Altantuya, what is the big deal about mismanagement by an ex-Chief Executive Office Shahrol, right? Even if a need arises to send Shahrol to prison, just to satisfy the general public’s hunger for blood, he would probably spend less than 12 months in jail, at most.

Shahrol’s mismanagement offence, if can be proven in court, is less serious than Khir Toyo’s corruption charges, mind you. That’s right; PAC had carefully chosen “mismanagement” over “corruption” word in the 1MDB scandal. In fact, they had cherry picked who gets to be interviewed during their investigation, and both Najib Razak and Jho Low weren’t part of them.

 

So, what’s going to happen to 1MDB now? According to its president Arul Kanda, it will be a shell company once the rationalisation plan is fully implemented, whatever that means. Mr Arul also claims 1MDB still owned Tun Razak Exchange and 40% stake in Bandar Malaysia, not to mention a cash surplus of RM2.96 billion. Not too bad for a company who was accused of losing RM42 billion.

Really? Let’s see. 1MDB had sold 100% of its power assets under Edra Global Energy Bhd to China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) for RM9.83 billion, when it had bought it for RM12 billion. So, there was a loss of RM2.17 billion in the bailout but the net loss was still RM17.26 billion (including RM7.43 billion in liabilities). By selling 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia, it was equivalent to 1MDB losing RM7.41 billion.

 

In total, RM24.67 billion (Edra and 60% of Bandar Malaysia’s sales) vanished under 1MDB. That’s not the end of the story. The country, or rather taxpayers, still owes Abu Dhabi’s IPIC (International Petroleum Investment Co) RM16 billion in debt. How come? Remember the debt-for-asset swap between Malaysia and U.A.E. which is still a question mark?

Therefore, at least RM40.67 billion had evaporated into thin air. Hence, the net effect of Najib’s pet project – 1MDB – is this. First, it losses power assets of Edra Solar Sdn Bhd, Edra Energy Sdn Bhd, Powertek Energy Sdn Bhd, Jimah Teknik Sdn Bhd, Jimah O&M Sdn Bhd, Mastika Lagenda Sdn Bhd and Tiara Tanah Sdn Bhd – the assets making up the Edra Global Energy Bhd.

 

Second, 1MDB losses part of 486-acre prime land making up the old Sungai Besi airport. Third, 30 million Malaysians still owe U.A.E. RM16 billion, which has yet to be repaid. PAC report also admitted 1MDB had paid a staggering RM3.3 billion for interests on the loans they took from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 alone.

And now the PAC and Najib administration are pointing fingers at two poor scapegoats – Mr Shahrol and Mr Mismanagement. True, Attorney General Apandi Ali had cleared PM Najib Razak. Now, the PAC Parliament Report has also cleared PM Najib Razak. Next, the new Bank Negara (Central Bank) Governor is expected to clear PM Najib Razak too.

 

But the rest of the world authorities – U.A.E central bank, Switzerland Attorney General, Luxembourg’s state prosecutor, Singapore central bank, U.S. FBI, Australian authorities, U.K.’s investigator, Hong Kong police have NOT cleared PM Najib Razak of any corruption, misappropriation of funds or money laundering activities.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• The WSJ Is Hustling Razak Family – Nazir Could Have Committed Money Laundering
• Najib, Did You Hide The “Spend US$375 Million As You Like” Letter?
• Relax Najib, ABC Reporters Just Asking Questions, Not Throwing Shoes At You
• FB Angry Emoji – CY Leung Gets 170K, Najib Razak Most Hated In ASEAN
• Najib’s Twin Scandals – It’s Not Over Yet, It’s Just The Beginning
• WSJ’s Last Bombshell For The Year – Najib’s $700 Million Came From 1MDB
• If The US Really Wants To Put Najib On Trial, There’s No Escape
• Thanks, “Taichi Queen” Zeti – Now Everyone Can Do Money Laundering
• Cleared & Innocent!! Now The World Must Apologise To PM Najib
• PM Najib’s Exit – Here’re His Cronies & Stocks You Should Avoid

Tweet

April 8th, 2016 by financetwitter

If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider: