Financial newspaper The Edge has put out a comprehensive exposé on Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho and Saudi Arabian firm PetroSaudi’s alleged plot to siphon off money from Malaysia’s sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad … despite it being what its editorial board fears might be the article that shuts the paper down.
The article, titled “How Jho Low & PetroSaudi schemed to steal money from the people of Malaysia via 1Mdb”, was published today through The Edge‘s print and online editions, with the print edition running the story on the front page, including the message from the paper’s publisher, which reads:
“We have a public duty to find and report the truth. After this report, which could be our last, we will hand over everything we have to the authorities investigating 1MDB and assist in any way we can.”
The article itself details an alleged scam perpetrated by Jho Low and PetroSaudi bosses Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony to steal a total of USD1.83 billion (RM6.9 billion) from 1MDB’s coffers since the fund’s inception in 2009.
Beginning with a 1MDB investment into PetroSaudi worth USD1 billion in 2009, the sovereign development fund’s commitment to the Saudi startup grew to USD1.83 billion by 2011.
PetroSaudi was to have committed USD1.5 billion in non-cash assets to the joint venture, but The Edge alleges that the company never owned the Turkmenistan oil field assets it pledged to include in the project.
Eventually, the 1MDB-PetroSaudi joint venture was called off, with 1MDB receiving only murabahah and promissory notes from PetroSaudi.
1MDB’s USD1.83 billion investment, however, was channelled into the accounts Jho Low, Obaid, and Majhony in several global banks in Switzerland, New York City, London, and Singapore – pointing to a possible act of international money laundering and fraud.
Jho Low’s company, Good Star Limited, itself received USD970 million from the total USD1.83 billion 1MDB had invested in PetroSaudi, and channeled USD529 million went to the bank account of Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corp (ADKMIC) at BIS Bank in Singapore. Jho Low was the beneficial owner of that account.
The extensive report was accompanied by an equally labyrinthine flow chart by The Edge illustrating the complicated money transactions from 1MDB and allegedly into the personal bank accounts of Low, Obaid, and Mahony.
At the end of the extensive report, The Edge‘s publisher noted that the allegations published in the paper today was corroborated by evidence that included bank transfers and documents. The note also mentioned that the sheer amount of evidence exlcuded everything from being published, and some documents couldn’t even legally be disclosed.
The publisher’s cautionary note appending the report comes at a precatious time for Malaysian press outlets investigating the 1MDB scandal, as UK-based whistleblower site Sarawak Report had its Malaysian user access blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, at least until the Special Task Force probe on 1MDB is concluded.
The MCMC stated yesterday that it had decided to block websites that could “threaten the country’s stability” with content that “cannot be verified and is being investigated”, after the commission received “information and complaints from the public”.
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