The waves from 1MDB are still rippling out over the finance industry. It was the scam where the ‘untouchables’ and their banking facilitators got caught.
But look how long it takes to bring these players to account. It was cited in the Singapore court, where 1MDB liquidators are suing Standard Chartered for $2.7 bn, that the bank “permitted over 100 intrabank transfers between 2009 and 2013 that helped conceal the flow of stolen funds” and chose to overlook obvious red flags in the process.
Yet, the bank, which had sought to get the case struck out, will appeal the ruling.
Meanwhile, former PM Najib Razak will finally receive a verdict on December 22nd over his own 1MDB case that has lasted seven years, thanks to delays and challenges that often ranged from the indulgent to the absurd.
In what seems unlikely to have been a coincidence, that date was brought forward from January meaning that the verdict will be issued on the exact same day that a separate decision is due to be made over Najib’s long-running application to convert his existing prison sentence (for separate multi-million ringgit thefts from SRC) to house arrest.
The proposed VVIP upgrade (Najib already enjoys luxury private quarters at Kajang jail) was controversially advocated behind the scenes by his family friend, the Pahang Sultan, during the closing hours of his tenure as King of Malaysia.
The scene seems set, therefore, for a package deal to combine what would appear from the facts presented to be an almost inevitable guilty verdict over the world’s largest recorded theft with a cosy retirement offer.
Najib has two rounds of appeals anyway, which he will certainly use to grind away at whatever sentence he might receive. There is plenty of money still for lawyers, clearly.
Meanwhile, mothers banged up for shoplifting for their hungry kids and petty drug users continue to sweat it out in harsh conditions, having received swift and summary justice in lower courts.
Indeed, thanks to exposing the whole affair, this writer received a two year sentence after a half day magistrate’s hearing in a local court in Terengganu, without notification even of the trial.
Meanwhile, the details that have emerged from the Singapore court of the charges faced by Standard Chartered highlight, as if anyone needed reminding, the levels of greed and graft involved over 1MDB on the part of Najib and his wife.
The bank managed the accounts of three offshore companies used by Jho Low to funnel funds stolen from the proceeds of the Goldman Sachs bond issues raised for 1MDB – a matter revealed as long ago as 2016.
Alsen Chance Holdings Limited, Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited, and Brightstone Jewellery Limited between them were used to transfer over $150 million to Najib’s personal account in KL and then further payments totalling over $135 million in luxury purchases for his wife Rosmah, including jewellery, watches and handbags.
The same accounts were used by Jho to finance his outreach into America’s celebrity set on behalf of the ruling Malaysia couple. However, this looting was separate to payments via other financial institutions such as Julius Baer who facilitated the payment of $170m diverted from SRC into the same Najib account, and in advance of the massive $680 million payment in advance of the 2013 election, paid via another Jho Low account (Tanore Finance Corporation) at Falcon Bank in Singapore.
The role of Rosmah Mansor in this scheme has been revealed to all. She was Jho Low’s pampered patroness who pushed him and his schemes past Najib whilst she intervened in government business to get her cut. Keeping a sufficient supply of trophies and trinkets flowing her way to suffice her voracious appetite was a major preoccupation of Jho Low’s criminal enterprise.
Yet, the execution of Rosmah’s own guilty verdict concerning just one documented example of her predatory behaviour, the looting of power supply funding designated for schools in Sarawak, lies frozen in apparent permafrost.
She was sentenced in September 2022 for soliciting a bribe of 187.5 million ringgit ($41.80 million), of which she received 6.5 million ringgit for arranging the contract – it had taken four years to reach that verdict after the matter was first exposed by Sarawak Report in June 2018.
Ever since, she has delayed the enforcement of her ten year sentence by tactics such as demanding the recusal of the judge who found her guilty.
In September, an Appeal Court panel rejected her appeal against the judge. She will now doubtless appeal the judgement then take that to the Federal Court. Chances are her husband will be out long before, or even if, she goes in.
Whilst 1MDB money is still missing, Rosmah and Najib have not run short of cash to fight their endless battles and the banks and other professionals who acted as willing hires are likewise fighting every inch of the way to avoid accountability themselves.