Chen Fenjian ex-President of CCCC China

An extensive report in the Asia Sentinel has unveiled the background to the latest ‘Corporate Suicide’ in China.

The victim, who is believed to have thrown himself off a tall building in Beijing on August 18th, was 58 year old Chen Fenjian, President of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) between April 2014 to July 2018 and then of the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) until his demise.

It was during Chen Fenjian’s tenure at the top of CCCC that a string of corrupt deals with Malaysia were sealed, involving massive kickbacks that were made to Najib Razak’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) in return for the vastly inflated East Coast Railway Project.

Sarawak Report has recently exposed how those multi-billion ringgit kickbacks were funnelled by CCCC subsidiary companies based in Hong Kong through a royal contact in Kuwait and then back to the MOF, largely to pay off debts secretly incurred by 1MDB in Abu Dhabi.

The entire scheme had been orchestrated by Jho Low who was acting as Najib’s 1MDB fixer at the time and who has been in hiding, mainly in China, since 2015.

260 Deaths Linked To Anti-Corruption Drive In China

Asia Sentinel points out that Chen Fenjian’s death marks the 260th senior corporate suicide or unnatural death since President Xi launched his ‘anti-corruption campaign’ in 2012, also that just one day before his death an investigative team from the Chinese government body overseeing state owned enterprises completed an inspection of CRCC:

The timing has aroused speculation on whether Chen’s apparent suicide might be linked to corruption ….. several chairmen of Chinese state-owned companies and state-owned banks have taken their lives to evade punishment and avoid revealing information on co-conspirators to Chinese investigators. 260 senior Chinese officials and company executives have died unnaturally through means such as falling off buildings, hanging, poisoning, gunshots or drowning [Asia Sentinel]

The Chinese website for CRCC has apparently been suspended since his death a fortnight ago. However, both CRCC and CCCC have been major players in China’s increasingly notorious ‘Silk Belt & Road’ initiative that has rolled out massive infrastructure across numerous developing countries as part of China’s expansionist ambitions.

Time and again such projects have ended up embroiling their host countries in debilitating debt to China thanks largely to corrupt deals entered into by local leaders, such as Najib’s own ECRL deal with CCCC which had inflated costs by 100% in order to conceal his thefts from 1MDB.

Moreover, CCCC has in the past days faced further sanctions by the US Commerce Department (along with 24 other Chinese companies) for helping the Chinese military build artificial islands and place military installations on these islands in the South China Sea. In a statement issued on August 26th a State Department official named CCCC, which was banned by the World Bank for corrupt practices back in 2009, as a “bad actor”:

“In doing this, we have various aims, including, of course, to impose costs on bad actors and to encourage all sorts of parties and institutions and governments around the world to assess risk and reconsider business deals with the sort of predatory Chinese state-own0ed enterprises that we’ve identified here, to include China Communications Construction Company and its subsidiaries that have been so central to the militarization and coercion in the South China Sea.
“CCCC, which led on the dredging, is also one of the leading contractors used by Beijing in its global “One Belt One Road” strategy. The company and its subsidiaries have engaged in corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses in countries all around the world”  [Asia Sentinel]

Under Najib’s premiership Malaysia, which has a pressing national concern over this major expansionism on its very doorstep, nevertheless withdrew from issuing a UN condemnation of China’s actions over the Spratly Islands and numerous intrusions into Malaysia’s waters.

Instead, Najib plunged the country into a series of massive untendered construction contracts with CCCC and related Chinese state companies, which the PH government was subsequently forced to re-negotiate as best it could. The purpose appears to have been to corruptly steal from his own country under the guise of Chinese led ‘development’.

The merits of the ECRL project (which was driven through by the now deceased Chen Fenjian) have remained hotly contested.  Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has been fined for the corrupt and negligent way it managed two parallel pipeline projects, paying almost entirely upfront in order that CCCC could secretly channel money back to pay interest on billions stolen from 1MDB.

Chen Fenjian and Najib presided over the lot of it. However, Najib continues to appeal his convictions and to defend his further corruption trials, claiming that he is merely the victim of ‘politically motivated charges’.

Read the full story in Asia Sentinel

Sarawak Report flagged up the Thai national and identified him as a key facilitator for Jho Low back in 2017 and the Singapore authorities cited him in open court as a fellow traveller of Jho back in November 2016.

The young party goer was a regular feature in the Jho Low entourage, having apparently been part of his ‘gang’ from his days at Wharton College in the United States. It is believed he may be a relative.

He took part in the notorious New Year party bash of 2013 when Jho Low flew his pals (on stolen 1MDB money) via a hired jumbo jet from Sydney to Las Vegas in time to celebrate the moment twice, for example, and various other jamborees in Bangkok.

Sarawak Report therefore noted the suspiciously coincidental arrival of Laogumnerd as the Chairman of the newly established ‘first Islamic Bank’ in Mauritius, Century Banking Corporation, in November 2016 just as the heat had been turned up on Jho Low after the Department of Justice seizure of 1MDB assets. Shortly after he took over there was a huge injection of tens of millions of dollars into the bank.

Why an ‘Islamic bank’ and why so many Malaysian nationals on the team Sarawak Report could not help but wonder? Of course, Jho Low’s imperative to control his own bank had reached somewhat desperate levels by this period, given the international banking system had closed against him once he became a notorious financial fugitive over 1MDB. What better than an off-shore ‘Islamic’ bank to foster his connections with Najib and his Middle Eastern network?

In June this year Sarawak Report finally confirmed such suspicions after obtaining details of the Kuwaiti investigation into Jho’s other key front man in Kuwait from 2016, namely Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah (Sheikh Sabah) son of the then prime minister.

According to documents sighted by Sarawak Report, the Kuwait Anti-Money Laundering Agency recorded suspicious transactions of over a €150 million sent to the Century Banking Corporation in 2017 as part of what the Kuwaiti experts described as a classic money laundering exercise.

The money was part of billions that had arrived into Sheikh Sabah’s account, now identified as having come from Chinese kickbacks organised by Najib Razak via projects procured through his Ministery of Finance in Malaysia. Much of the cash went back to Malaysia to pay off debts to Abu Dhabi, but a very large amount had remained in the Sheikh’s personal accounts.

Following Sarawak Report’s exclusive the Kuwaitis arrested Sheikh Sabah and are currently reviewing the details of their earlier investigation, which appears to have been suppressed before Sarawak Report exposed its findings.

Little surprise therefore that the Mauritius regulators have finally revoked the licence for Century Bank. Off shore island regulators in particular appear remarkably blind to misdeeds until they are impossible to ignore.

Jho’s Front Man

Top respected law firms in New York, London and elsewhere have proved equally poor sighted when it comes to Jho Low and 1MDB it would appear. Using open source information Sarawak Report frequently pointed to Laogumnerd’s role in helping out Jho Low as an effective proxy.

In 2017 he took over ownership of the Myla women’s underwear company from Jho Low, which housed its offices in the suite of buildings also acquired by Jho Low in Stratton Street, Mayfair under a New Zealand trust, now seized by the FBI.

We also reported how Laogumnerd acquired and then fire-sale’d a multi-million dollar New York penthouse in a carbon copy of Jho’s own real estate ventures … using the exact same off shore methods and New Zealand law firms as Jho himself.

Sarawak Report has moreover highlighted how Laogumnerd’s connections in Bangkok may also have assisted Jho, Najib and their contacts in PetroSaudi to manage the arrest and ongoing incarceration of the PetroSaudi/1MDB whistleblower Xavier Justo from 2015.

Yet, despite the wealth of such information and evidence about Laogumnerd’s dubious and apparent proxy status relating to Jho Low, law firms like Kobre & Kim were until recently  willing to accept the Thai national as an anonymous ‘principle’ from whom to receive payments of tens of millions of dollars to finance Jho’s legal and lobbying campaigns in the United States, UK and elsewhere.

Indeed, it is abundantly clear that from 2016 Laogumnerd and Sheikh Sabah were acting as the two front men lending ‘respectability’ to payments on Jho’s behalf and thereby enabling them to be received by Kobre & Kim through the international banking system. While the banks may not have been aware these were payments for Jho Low’s various lobbying and PR campaigns, the law firm obviously did as it managed the payments.

By May this year Sarawak Report had so thoroughly exposed the relationship between Jho Low and Sheikh Sabah as his conduit that it seems that that the law firm decided to abandon any subterfuge in the matter of who was fronting up those bills.

In their latest filings under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act Kobre & Kim dropped the anonymity given to the ‘foreign principles’ whom they had previously refused to identify but admitted were paying Jho’s expenses out of “friendship”.

Their most recent submission to the public records on June 15th not only named the Sheikh for the first time but added a further shock confirmation over the role of Laogumnerd:

Laogumnerd was covering Jho Low’s astronomical legal bills (including the sending of letters of harassment to Sarawak Report’s publishers)           right up till March this year

This admission by Jho Low’s esteemed and enormously highly paid legal support network surely leads to one overwhelming conclusion. Mr Phengphian Laogumnerd is in possession of all the information any searching detective might wish to have about how to make contact with Jho Low and indeed pin him down for a well-deserved arrest. He is the latest known intermediary with his law firm

The authorities in China have said they have no idea where Jho is hiding, even though he has been lobbying on China’s behalf regarding top matters of state, most specifically China’s desire to extradite the billionaire fugitive and client of Steve Bannon, Guo Wenghui, who has taken refuge in the US.

However, Phengphian Laogumnerd most certainly does know where Jho Low is and also how to access Jho Low’s cash.

Phengphian Laogumnerd is also plainly in violation of numerous money laundering laws himself and should therefore, at the very least, have been hauled up for questioning just like Sheikh Sabah by the Thai authorities or on their behalf.

Or has Phengphian Laogumnerd also himself now disappeared into hiding?  Perhaps the Bangkok authorities might care to comment.

On a final point, whether Phengphian Laogumnerd is now himself a fugitive or merely the head of a dubious bank whose licence has now been removed, how do proud and upstanding legal firms like Kobre & Kim justify continuing to receive payments from this Thai front man on behalf of the world’ most wanted financial fugitive?

Sarawak Report has placed that very question to Kobre & Kim and will publish any response they may provide.

She has now pleaded guilty on all counts, as has DOJ lawyer George Higgenbotham who acted to assist the team of collaborators who were secretly paid to assist Jho Low and Najib Razak in their attempts to influence the Trump administration to drop the case on 1MDB.

It mounts pressure on Elliot Broidy and his lawyer wife Robin Broidy who are yet to be faced with charges and also on singer Pras Michel who has decided to fight the case brought against him for money laundering on behalf of Jho Low and assisting in his secret lobbying without declaring his activities under the law.

See the Announcement by the Department of Justice:

Hawaii Businesswoman Pleads Guilty to Facilitating Back-Channel Lobbying Campaign to Drop 1MDB Investigation and Remove a Foreign National to China

BILLIONS of dollars are stolen. Everyone knows what happened, but it turns out almost no one is guilty of anything. This, it seems, is how dodgy local politicians want it – as well as well-paid international armies of lawyers, lobbyists, auditors and regulators.

The IMDB scandal burst through Malaysia’s veneer as a booming if somewhat particular democracy five years ago. Harrow-educated businessman Low Taek Jho, current whereabouts unknown, denies industrial theft in partnership with leading politicians, second-division Gulf royalty and some of the best names money in the west can buy.

His lawyers, including Kobre & Kim and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, last year pocketed $15m in fees as part of a deal with the US Justice Department under which Jho Low, as he is more commonly known, admitted no liability for wrongdoing but surrendered a billion dollars. Last month prosecutors in Malaysia agreed to drop charges against Goldman Sachs in connection with the web of empty boxes and opaque accounts that was IMDB, in return for a settlement that may fall well short of the reported $3.9bn-again with no taint of impropriety.

Goldman Sachs is not the only institution to emerge with everything save its reputation unscathed. Those caught apparently unwittingly in the web of 1MDB’s distress reads like a who’s who of international finance, including RBS Coutts, Standard Chartered, UBS, BSI, Falcon, Edmond de Rothschild Bank, ANZ, Julius Baer, ICBC, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, United Overseas Bank, DBS and AmBank. KPMG and Deloitte face allegations of either negligence or complicity, while those law firms and lobbyists enlisted to ensure the accused receive a fair hearing include Kobre & Kim, Schillings, Loeb & Loeb, Mishcon de Reya, White & Case, Shearman & Sterling, DLA Piper and Clyde & Co LLP.

It’s no surprise, then, that Najib Razak, the prime minister who presided over the IMDB affair, also says he has done nothing wrong, save for helping orphans and farmers. A new government smuggled into power in March – we call it “money politics” – has already dropped all charges against Riza Aziz, Najib’s stepson, relating to allegations that he used some of the IMDB loot to produce the movie The Wolf of Wall Street and finance a playboy Beverly Hills lifestyle.

New prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, commonly known as Moo, used to be Najib’s deputy and has been on a familiar charm offensive. We now have a record number of ministers, to match lucrative new appointments to government-linked companies. For those not on board, the outlook is more gloomy: a reformist former finance minister faces resurrected charges of corruption (already dismissed for lack of evidence), while Anwar Ibrahim, jailed and pardoned for trumped-up sodomy charges, is also back in the frame. The result? The very interests thrown out at the last election are now back, ruling a very comfortable roost (in between court appearances).

So, it seemed something of a surprise when Najib was found guilty in Kuala Lumpur on 28 July of the first seven of 42 charges relating to the scandal and sentenced to 12 years, especially as Moo’s awkward coalition hangs by a single vote- that of the former PM himself. Najib may have been convicted of a massive theft of public money, but is able to remain an active MP pending appeals.

Moo (and those who promoted him) know Najib’s conviction leaves him essentially a free man – but obliged to the new/old order during an appeals process that could extend beyond the next election. There’s a lot riding on the outcome for Najib and all those so keen to move on from the unvictimless crime that was IMDB.

This week the inexperience told as he plunged into a deep political trap that might well have been laid by craftier operators than him. He shows no signs of clawing a way out.

It began in Parliament on Monday. Zaifrul’s fellow PN coalition members have grown restless, seeking counter-accusations against those they turfed from office, in order to deflect from the mountains of charges of illegalities laid against themselves for past corruption and misdeeds.

Former Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, is their top target and has already become the butt of a swathe of corruption smears, police reports and now dubious charges.

So, on Monday afternoon Zaifrul took the bait to push the accusations further.

Ahmad Maslan MP (himself facing money laundering charges) set up the moment by archly questioning his senior colleague if any Direct Contracts (ie. not subject to open tender) had been awarded under the PH government?

What an opportunity to show up the reformers from the deposed elected government who had sought to enforce transparency and abolish the scourge of dirty ministerial backhanders – those so-called ‘negotiated’ Direct Contracts!

Smugly, Finance Minister Zaifrul answered that indeed he could report (since he had clearly prepared for this question and reply) that no less than RM6.6 billion worth of Direct Contracts had been awarded across some 101 negotiated contracts during the short period PH held office before the backdoor coup.

Zaifrul accused his predecessor Lim Guan Eng of having deceitfully signed them off in contravention of his proclaimed drive for open government.

Ooops – Cornered!

His followers were jubilant as Parliament erupted with heckling MPs. Later cyber-troopers crowed, why did not Sarawak Report expose the RM6.6 billion, instead of just hounding poor, convicted Najib Razak?

But soon the horror dawned. It was not for the likes of Sarawak Report to come up with the details as the former Finance Minister and his political colleagues pointed out, it was for Tengku Zaifrul to publish his own report, which he clearly had not properly read himself.

Meanwhile, Lim Guan Eng published a table of just 12 such ‘negotiated’ projects sponsored by the previous BN government that dwarfed Zaifrul’s figures at the staggering total cost of RM139 billion!

Just 12 projects cited by Lim Guan Eng included the Sarawak Solar project which has landed Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor in court over millions in backhanders

By the following day the former Prime Minister and Finance Minister were taunting Zaifrul to publish his ‘101 list’ in full.

They pointed out that almost 70% of the entire RM6.6 billion related to five so-called legacy projects that had actually been ‘Directly Negotiated’ by his own PN colleagues under the prior BN government.

Given the original projects were so vastly inflated PH had successfully negotiated them down, but were unable to discard the contracts owing to the lock-in clauses agreed to by BN.  Zaifrul’s list treated them as if they were new outrages instead of a mitigation of old outrages committed by his own colleagues.

The largest of these was Phase 2 of the Klang Valley double-tracking project which was signed up to on the last day of the BN government, awarding Dhaya Maju LTAT Sdn Bhd an astronomical RM5.265 billion, which PH pared down to RM4.475 billion.

“Zafrul should be praising the Harapan administration because we saved RM790 million in taxpayers’ money,” said Lim Guan Eng

Who Signed Off Those Contracts?

It then got even more awkward for Zaifrul and his colleagues. Laying out his figures from his own administration the former Finance Minister pointed out that most of the remaining expenditures also related to events that had taken place under the previous government, expenses that needed to be honoured.

Only 5.3 percent of the RM6.6 billion involved “new” directly awarded contracts undertaken by the Harapan government, amounting to RM352 million, Lim said, and half of that amount was for a new solid waste transfer station in Jinjang Utara.

It was not himself, the Finance Minister, who signed off that contract, but the leading PH defector and celebrated side-kick of the chief coup conspirator Azmin Ali, Zuraida Kamaruddin.

So, if there is blame to be levelled it points right back to PN which has clearly attracted the chief personalities who appear to have let the side down for the elected government in more ways than one!

“Perhaps it’s better for the minister, who has refuted claims of being involved in direct awards, to explain what happened,”

suggested Lim Guan Eng. Indeed. He then went on to explain most of the other list of directly awarded contracts, making the point that Harapan’s election pledge was never to do away entirely with direct contracts, which were needed in some specific circumstances such as those he’d cited, but to conduct open tenders as widely as possible.

As the unravelling of Zaifrul’s ‘masterstroke’ continued, Zuraida herself countered with a line from Najib’s own playbook. She had not known about the RM170 million contract signed off by her department, she said earlier today (having suggested only yesterday that there had been no such contracts from her ministry):

“I would like to emphasise that the projects were approved without my knowledge”

Oh dear. What more can one say?

Storm Clouds Gather

Faced with the inevitable, the shamed Finance Minister had little option but to release the details of the 101 projects and did so yesterday.

Reporters scoured the figures as the accused opposition leaders drummed their fingers waiting for what would further be revealed.

The second largest figure on the list of covertly negotiated contracts soon leapt out. It was a fat RM270 million contract awarded to Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) to supply biodata chips used in Malaysian passports.

The very same company has only recently hit the headlines as its then CEO, Abu Hanifah Noordin, has been implicated as one of the crony insiders caught paying ‘donations’ to a bogus foundation run by the present UMNO leader Zahid Hamidi.

Zahid (in between leading the largest political party in the PN coalition) is now in a middle of a corruption trial regarding this and some 47 other charges relating to abuse of trust, theft and money laundering whilst he acted as Home Minister for the prior BN government and Deputy Prime Minister as well.

Questioned as a witness, Data Sonic’s Abu Hanifah Noordin broke down in tears as he explained the alleged RM6 million backhander he personally handed to Zahid, who stands accused of using the millions ‘donated’ to the ‘mosque building’ foundation on his personal expenses and to pay off his vast credit card bills.

Nordin has since stepped down as CEO of Data Sonic, but not before that plum ‘direct contract’ was handed out under the PH government according to the figures presented by Zairfrul. How strange, given the links to Zahid and the case about to come before the court:

Item 15 – massive contract to Data Sonic Technologies

So, under which ministry was the RM270 million contract handed out during the PH government? Of course, it was the Home Ministry, which is concerned with passports.

Meaning that it was Zahid’s successor who was responsible for the new Data Sonic contract, none other than his predecessor as Deputy UMNO leader under Najib, the PH double defector and present Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin.

Indeed, after Transport and Defence, Muhyiddin’s Home Affairs Department issued the highest expenditure on untendered contracts during the PH government according to Zaifrul’s figures on the ‘101 contracts':

Muhyiddin over saw RM517.6 million in direct contracts under PH

So, does PN’s ‘PM8′ also find that like his fellow defector Zuraida he cannot remember approving these 8 meaty projects or is he willing to offer a full explanation as to why his department signed off a ‘negotiated’ secret contract with a known crony of the BN government who was already caught up in his predecessor’s corruption charges?

Zaifrul started the week as the hero of his party, moving the spotlight on corruption off their own decades of misrule and on to the previous elected government with a reform agenda, which they turfed from office.

Has it all backfired and created even more question marks over a coalition lead by charged and convicted crooks and headed by their former close friend and colleague who defected back to join them?

Top quality with one way side valve

It can have surprised no one that convicted kleptocrat Najib Razak has attended court and other events wearing possibly the most expensive and exclusive form of mask available to match his couture suits.

Advertisements show that the masks in question boast an almost total protection for the wearer, against “present and even future pandemics“.

The extra crucial feature of this style of mask is the ‘one-way valve’ that carefully filters the air breathed in. Instructions make clear that despite the hefty price tag they should be disposed after a single use.

After all, Najib was not convicted for stealing a mere few hundred ringgit (if he had he would have gone straight to jail). He is used to the best things in life, including the best health protection.

However, the maker of this exclusive ‘Swiss’ Xeralife brand, which is in fact manufactured locally in Malaysia and sells for around RM60 a pack of three, has now confirmed to Sarawak Report that the purpose of the product is squarely focused on the protection of the wearer rather than those around him.

Najib’s Mask Like an “Open Air Exhaust”

Indeed there has been considerable concern in recent weeks over the flaunting of these one way valve masks by well-heeled wearers across the globe, compared to the more humble paper products available to the majority of people at the chemist.

In short, according to medical experts “These masks are designed for situations in which the wearers need to protect themselves but aren’t at risk of transmitting infection to others” for example when a doctor is treating a lone infectious patient or factory workers need to avoid dust.

But, as legions of doctors have now explained, in a situation like the present pandemic, where we all wear masks to protect each other, the one-way valve acts as the ultimate selfish accessory that protects the wearer, but nobody else.

This was how experts explained the product to Healthline as more and more global authorities have started to call for people to stop wearing them over the past few weeks:

“Any mask with a one-way valve is only going to protect the person wearing it. It won’t protect anyone around that person from potential exposure to virus particles they exhale,” Dr. Ali Raja, executive vice chair of the department of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School told Healthline. “It may give the people surrounding them a false sense of security.”

“In the spirit of ‘your mask protects me and my mask protects you,’ a mask with a valve virtually makes that impossible,” said Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS, a microbiologist and contributor at the COVID Tracking Project.

“If you don’t have anything filtering what’s going out, it’s kind of like your mouth is an open air exhaust. And that’s the danger,” she told Healthline.

So as far as Najib is concerned his top dollar mask has been protecting him from all the crowds of supposedly adoring supporters who have circled him at court or indeed now on the campaign trail, but done nothing to protect them in return.

If he turns out to have picked up the virus during all these public events, no one around him will have the expected basic protection when he breaths out, speaks… or worse coughs in their direction.

To the contrary, the valve acts to funnel and turbo-charge the virus right at them!

It is not as if such products (generally described as an N95 mask variety) have not been widely reported on and officially warned against. In the US the leading agency in the field has strongly condemned their use:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says “Masks with exhalation valves or vents should NOT be worn to help prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading COVID-19 to others.” [health news hub]

Likewise in India:

Rajiv Garg, Director General of Health Services in India wrote to all health authorities saying “the use of valved respirator N95 mask is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing the spread of coronavirus” [Times of India]

Airlines have also started banning their use on flights:

“Any mask with an exhaust valve is not approved as an acceptable face mask for customers travelling on any Delta operated flight,” the airline announced last week, with United Airlines and JetBlue sharing similar announcements. On Wednesday, Alaska Airlines also updated its mask policy, listing “face coverings with direct exhaust valves” under its “unacceptable face coverings” section.

Even the top US Mayo Clinic, cited by PM8 as the medical institute supervising his own cancer treatment, has come out to condemn the use of valve masks:

“It defeats the purpose,” Kai Singbartl, a medical doctor who is the chair for infection prevention and control at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, told USA Today. “They are unfiltered, those valves are the path of least resistance so to speak, it’s easier to exhale and get rid of the heat and moisture.”

Exhaling viral droplets and particles

Did Najib miss the news and does he care? Who knows. This is a man who has lately explained that he stole billions from his country, but only to ‘help the orphans’.

Top sales model

Meanwhile, Malaysian advertisers have jumped on the bandwagon to promote this product that has been increasingly banned worldwide.

Najib has become their pinup star to encourage others to buy the expensive, throw away but selfish product.

Numerous KL outlets now declare they have sold out online.

When we investigated this week we discovered the global medical concerns failed to deter Xeralife from offering to SELL Sarawak Report a wholesale batch of the masks after we wrote to query the details of their product.

Marketing their prices the Xeralife sales team clearly confirmed the one-way valve feature of the mask, which has been so widely condemned by experts for use in the pandemic:

“The design in and integration of the air valve is there for better breathability and it is positioned at the side way instead at the middle.

It function[s] as a one way valve where it filter[s] incoming polluted and decontaminated air and exhaust[s] air that we exhale.
The cost is RM35.90/box and it’s available….”    [email from Xeralife to SR]

Meanwhile, yet another warning from Martin Fischer of Duke University who conducted a study into valved masks:

“they do a great job of protecting the wearer from the outside environment, but a bad job of protecting others from the wearer, and it is the second role that is the important one to reduce COVID-19 spread.”

A follow up email from Xeralife to Sarawak Report on Wednesday acknowledged these very concerns after we rejected their one way valve masks on the ground of endangering others,

The company then informed us they will be releasing a version of their mask without an air valve next week.

Meanwhile, those who have crowded up to see and support Najib, might do better to keep at a safe distance and for their own benefit not his.

READ THE EMAIL TRAIL

Now we have it from Straits Times reporter Leslie Lopez, who is long famed in regional news circles for his ‘excellent contacts’ and apparent direct access to information from Najib, Jho Low and their most inner circle.

Lopez says that Najib’s cousin, Hishamuddin Hussein, now Foreign Minister in the Coup Coalition, will indeed be heading out to Abu Dhabi next week as the key emissary from Malaysia in the matter, just as Sarawak Report earlier reported.

And if Lopez wrote it, Malaysian media plainly consider his words come from the ‘horse’s mouth’ and are therefore reporting the matter widely in expectation of an imminent announcement.

If confirmed, it means Malaysia has indeed agreed (as we reported) to surrender its key leverage over Abu Dhabi by placing the London court case against IPIC on hold, in favour of secret negotiations between two parties who both have plenty of embarrassing details people now in charge would like to hide, especially from the Malaysian public

With Hishamuddin now taking the lead (as we also reported) it is being suggested that the legal matter – IPIC owes Malaysia billions for its collusion with Najib to steal from 1MDB – is now being treated as a ‘diplomatic matter’ by the PN government in order to end ‘strained relations’ between two apparent vital allies.

More to the point, sweeping the entire scandal back under the carpet will spare the blushes of Hishamuddin’s apparently shameless cousin and also the Abu Dhabi royals whom he enticed into his corruption deals in Malaysia – whether wittingly or unwittingly would likely have emerged in court.

As with the Goldman Sachs case this ‘political’ approach would mean no party would have to admit to guilt over the disappearance of Malaysia’s billions. How convenient:

The report said a deal with Abu Dhabi would be more complex and would require major concessions from both governments. “Any settlement would have to be political because both sides are not going to make any admission to guilt,” an unnamed former government official was quoted as saying. [Free Malaysia Today]

Presiding over the issue (as yet unreported by Lopez and the rest) is Malaysia’s own royal personage and friend to both sides.

The present Agong (who appointed PM8 without any recommendation from an elected leader) is Najib’s local sultan, who has long enjoyed a happy working relationship with the ex-prime minister and his family and also went to Sandhurst with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince.

However, this saving of face amongst the friends and relatives of the present powers-that-be will both cover up the truth and result in vast and unnecessary concessions from Malaysia in terms of yet more billions surrendered over, for which honest but ordinary and unconnected folk will have to pay.

The country is now back entangled in a relationship with Goldman Sachs, who under the terms of PN’s settlement has agreed to act as ‘agent’ for the recovery of money it ought to have been fined. Soon, perhaps Malaysia can look forward to becoming entangled in more of Abu Dhabi’s Middle Eastern wars (as if Yemen was not enough)?

People should ask if the PN Coup Coalition is doing such deals for the benefit of Malaysia or the benefit of ‘Bossku’ and all his hangers on once more?

The expressed purpose of the meeting, which Najib had plainly hoped would take place on Trump’s Bedminster golf course, was to persuade the President to interfere in the Department of Justice’s 1MDB investigation and close it down.

Tellingly, the case against Hawaii based lobbyist Nickie Mali Lum Davis was lodged on the very day that another former top advisor to President Trump, Steve Bannon, was himself arrested on corruption charges whilst sunning on the deck of a super-yacht owned by the Chinese billionaire fugitive Guo Wengui.

Guo Wengui is a client of Bannon’s separate ‘consultancy’ work, whilst the other objective of Jho Low’s lobbying, according to this latest case, was to persuade the Trump administration to extradite Guo back to China on behalf of the Chinese government.

From the Hawaii Court Papers against Jho Low’s secret lobbyists

US$8 Million To Arrange A Game Of Golf!

At the time Najib was quoted boasting that he had been invited on official business to Washington September 2017 “for free” (ie paid for by the Malaysian taxpayer):

“My invitation to meet Trump was on official government business. I did not pay anything for the invite. My predecessor had to do several things to get an invite from (President George) Bush, I do not practise that,” he was quoted as saying. (Straits Times)

However, according to this latest criminal complaint, matters could not have been further from the truth as prosecutors have lain out step by step exactly how Jho Low acted as Najib’s agent in Washington.

Key to the strategy was one of Jho’s Hollywood celebrity pals, the rap singer Pras Michel who is facing money laundering charges (which he presently denies) together with his lawyer George Higginbotham for secretly funnelling $21 million on behalf of Jho Low.

Of that money $865,000 was allegedly channeled into President Obama’s 2012 campaign. However, Higginbotham has admitted in a guilty pleas that later payments were directed at the Trump administration to influence decisions over 1MDB and both he and Pras Michel were handsomely paid.

It was Pras Michel who allegedly approached the Hawaiian lobbyist Nickie Lum Davis (whose parents were themselves previously found guilty of illegal campaign contributions) and in turn Ms Lum approached the Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Elliot Broidy. According to the court filing issued on 20th August in Hawaii:

In or about March 2017, DAVIS told Person B [Elliot Broidy] that she had a possible client in Malaysia who could “use help with the forfeiture.” [over 1MDB]

Broidy agreed to help in return for an $8 million up front retainer and a “$75 million success fee if the “matter” was resolved within 180 days“.

Pras Michel in turn wanted evidence to show his Malaysian contacts that Broidy had the clout and connections to swing matters for them in Washington DC.

[Pras Michel] requested that DAVIS send him Person B’s [Broidy’s] biography describing Person B’s relationship with high-level officials in the Administration and photographs of [Broidy] and the President. On or about March 7, 2017, [Broidy’s] assistant, at DAVIS’s request, emailed photographs to DAVIS featuring [Broidy] and the President. [Pras Michel] said that he wanted the photographs so that [he] could highlight [Broidy’s] close access to the Administration.

The photos seems to have done the trick because a meeting was arranged between Lum Davies, Pras Michel and Broidy in Washington, following which they agreed to go to Asia to meet up with Jho Low and a contract was then drawn up with the law firm belonging to Broidy’s wife, Robyn Broidy, indicating that she would be representing Jho Low legally in the 1MDB forfeiture case. However prosecutors allege:

“In actuality, [the law firm] provided no litigation services or legal advice to Foreign National A [Jho Low]. The true purpose of the retention agreement was to secure [Broidy’s] services to lobby the administration and DOJ on [Jho Low’s] behalf based on [Elliot Broidy’s] political connections.”

Broidy then set about trying to use his influence on behalf of Jho Low, having texted Lum Davies that “I’m excited about our business prospects.”

Over the next months Lum Davies and Broidy communicated between themselves and Pas Michel about their efforts to serve Jho Low’s requirements.

On May 2nd, on condition of an upfront payment of $1 million (paid by Jho Low through Pras Michel’s company into the legal firm owned by Broidy’s wife) Broidy agreed to join Lum Davies and Pras Michel in Bangkok to meet Jho Low at the Shangri La Hotel. “Thanks and bon voyage – here’s to the start of an exciting and prosperous adventure!” Lum Davies texted Broidy as they set out:

“On or about May 2, 2017, DAVIS, [Pras Michel], and [Broidy] arrived in Bangkok. During the trip [they] met with Foreign National A [Jho Low] in a hotel suite. [Broidy] and [Jho Low] spoke about the lMDB investigation and civil forfeiture actions. Broidy agreed to help Jho Low attempt to resolve the matter. Jho Low agreed to pay [Broidy] an $8 million retainer and wanted [Broidy] to contact the Attorney General of the United States to get DOJ to drop the lMDB matter. [Broidy] agreed to lobby the Administration and DOJ for a favourable result for [Jho Low] while concealing the fact that he was working on [Jho Low’s] behalf. With respect to payment, [Broidy] stated that the money should not come directly from [Jho Low] and should be “clean.”  [Jho Low] identified a friend who could pay [Broidy] and others.

[Broidy], [Pras Michel] and DAVIS agreed that the money would first be routed through [Pras Michel] and then be paid to [Broidy] through [Robyn Broidy’s law firm]. [Broidy] and DAVIS agreed that [Broidy] would pay DAVIS thirty percent of what [he] received. [Pras Michel] also agreed to pay DAVIS a percentage of the funds that [he] received.”

 Urgent Most Expensive Ever Golf Engagement!

The prosecution filing then details how following the Bangkok meeting the three US lobbyists received a total of $8.5 million from Jho Low, sent from a company in Hong Kong. Although all three of them knew that under the Foreign Agents Registration Act they ought to have declared the payments and their purpose they did not.

[Pras Michel] Receives $8.5 Million from [Jho Low]; [Broidy] is Paid $6 Million; DAVIS is Paid $1.7 Million

At this point the team went to work to organise a meeting with President Trump for Najib Razak. Broidy contacted his link man at the White House, Rick Gates, the former Paul Manafort aide on the Trump election campaign.

Like Manafort, Gates was later jailed after admitting to lying about connections with the Russians. “Asian country is very motivated re July meeting. Hoping we can confirm date etc asap” Broidy allegedly texted Gates.

Broidy plainly had reason to think that Prime Minister Najib was fully aware and approving of his efforts arranged by Jho Low and according to the complaint the requests soon became more specific, because by June it was apparent that Najib saw his best approach through a game of golf:

In or about June 17, 2017, [Broidy] and DAVIS discussed Malaysian Prime Minister A. In or about June 201 7, Person B asked the President if he would play golf with Malaysian Prime Minister A. [Broidy] said, and DAVIS believed, that this would please [Jho Low] and would allow Malaysian Prime Minister A to attempt to resolve the 1MDB matter. [Broidy] also hoped to secure additional business with the government of Malaysian Prime Minister A and hoped that arranging golf with the President would further his business interests.

As Sarawak Report has previously reported Broidy was simultaneously at that time seeking to secure a multi-million dollar ‘cyber-security’ contract with Malaysia through his company Circinus.

As Malaysians well know, following Trump’s election Najib several times boasted about a game he had played in the past with his “golfing buddy” the President, who had signed a photograph calling Najib his “favourite Prime Minister”. Likewise, Najib had also secured a game of golf with former President Obama in December   2014 in none other than Hawaii.

Broidy’s frantic efforts to make the dream come true for Najib are detailed in the court papers.

June 29, 2017, [Broidy] sent a text message to a high ranking official in the White House in an effort to arrange a golf outing between Malaysian Prime Minister A and the President: “Hi [Person E – believed to be Chief of Staff John Kelly], As I mentioned, POTUS agreed to play a round of golf in DC or Bedminster in late July or early August with [Malaysian Prime Minister A]. Thank you very much for getting back to me with the date. Also a letter went to the state dept. for a meeting some weeks ago.”

However, the Chief of Staff and State Department apparently had better things to do than fix Najib’s game. Several further pleas went unanswered as the proposed visit was put back month after the month.

Specifically, in the course of texts sent by Broidy to the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, the fundraiser claims that he had spoken to Trump who had agreed to play with Najib at his own Bedminster golf course.

Furthermore, he claimed he had spoken directly to Najib about the plan as well and numerous texts from then White House Chief of Staff John Kelly make plain that he was also aware of the requests and the administration was dealing with Malaysian official channels on the same mater as well. At the same time Broidy and Lum Davies also imply they were having parallel conversations with Malaysian officials as well as with Jho Low (see below)

In which case, does it not beggar belief that Najib would have been totally unaware that Jho Low had hired Broidy to set the meeting up and game of golf with Trump to get charges dropped over 1MDB?

GOLF DIPLOMACY – EXTRACT FROM THE COURT PAPERS AGAINST LUM DAVIES

On or about June 30, 2017, [Broidy] sent another text message to Person E regarding the golf outing: “Hope we can speak this morning on [PRC National A] and golf date with POTUS for [Malaysian Prime Minister A].” Later that day, Person B followed up with, “[Person E], as discussed, hoping we can get these items completed today. Please call me anytime.”

On or about July 3, 2017, [Broidy] again texted Person E regarding the golf date for Malaysian Prime Minister A and the President: “Good morning [Person E/ Kelly]. It would be extremely helpful to me if you could confirm the golf date today with POTUS for [Malaysian Prime Minister A.] POTUS told me he is glad to play at Bedminster or DC. After we spoke, I mentioned to [Malaysian Prime Minister A] that he would have the date last week. Thank you very much! Regards, [].” Later that day, [Broidy] texted Person E again: “[Person E], I’m following up. Please send me the date and time for the [Malaysian Prime Minister A] golf with POTUS. Thank you!”

On or about July 5, 2017, [Broidy] exchanged messages with Person E regarding the golf outing. Among other messages, [Broidy] texted, “[Person E],just left you a message. It’s been a week. Can you send me the date today? Best, []” Person E responded, “It’s with the NSC[.] They coordinate and negotiate – I’m sure it will get done[.]”….

54. On or about July 11, 2017, relaying a message from [Pras Michel], DAVIS texted [Broidy], “Wickr[.] It’s 5pm … I think we need to make a move. Date and otherwise. We’re getting killed.” These messages referred to confirming a date for Malaysian Prime Minister A to play golf with the President and [Jho Low’s] displeasure because no date had been confirmed.

The following day, [Broidy] texted DAVIS, “Send me text on wikr. I’m taking off and need to get to WH[.] Taking off. Need now[.]” DAVIS responded, “Done[.]” [Broidy] responded, “Got it. Thx[.] Trying to get [Person F] to do call asap[.]” Person F was then a high- ranking official on the National Security Council.

55. On or about July 13, 2017, DAVIS texted [Broidy], “Please call when u can so we can talk- we gotta handle this so pls pls go to D.C. And sit at WH until u get it. I will keep u company if u worry about being lonely!”

56. On or about July 13, 2017, [Broidy] texted [Kelly] again regarding the golf date: “Hi [Person E], It’s been 2 weeks. Checking again on date for golf for [Malaysian Prime Minister A] with POTUS. Can you text me date today? Thank you. Best, [][.]” Person E/[Kelly] responded, “I’ll check now again[.] These things go through a process -“. [Broidy] responded “Thank you!!” Person E replied, “NSC is on it and coordinating[.]” Broidy responded, “Can we get date today?” Person E replied, “They’re working directly with [Malaysia.] NSC is coordinating a date.”

57. On or about July 15, 2017, Person B texted DAVIS, “Working on getting meetings for tomorrow.”….

On or about July 17, 2017, conveying urgency expressed by Person A on behalf of Foreign National A, DA VIS texted Person B, “[Person E] needs to give u this date now and ask him for update on other thing. We look impotent[.]” This text referred both to setting up a meeting between the President and Malaysian Prime Minister A and to the matter involving PRC National A. Person B responded, “Agree. Hammering away[.]”

59. On or about July 18, 2017, Person B and DAVIS exchanged several text messages about setting up a meeting between the President and Malaysian Prime Minister A. Among the messages, relaying information from [Pras Michel], DAVIS wrote, “Canu check Wikr[.] Really really need that date. It’s been crazy for me all day w this. He’s panicking[.]” DAVIS followed up with, “This date is mandatory today- we’re getting creamed.” According to Person A, [Jho Low] was panicking because no meeting had yet been scheduled. Person B responded,”Calling [Person E] now[.]” DAVIS replied in part, “Call everyone so they know u are raging mad[.] Call [Person G] too. We need this today[.]” Person G was an administrative assistant to the President. Person B replied, “Doing it now.”

60. On or about July 19, 2017, DAVIS texted [Broidy] in reference to scheduling a date for a meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister A and the President, “Secondly we need this date bad[.]” [Broidy] responded the following day, “Please bear with me. Getting some info on mtg[.]

On or about July 21, 2017, [Broidy] texted Person E regarding the golf outing: “[Person E], [Malaysia] have heard nothing from NSC. POTUS said he would play golf with Malaysian Prime Minister A in late July or early August. POTUS said he was happy to do it. You said it would be scheduled in a day or two. We’re in the 4th week. I know you are busy and procedures apply but I’ve been more than patient. Instead of being positive, this is now causing me damage. I would truly appreciate it if you could get back to me today with a date. Thank you! [].”

62. On or about July 24, 2017, [Broidy] texted [Gates], “Received golf date in NJ in Sept. Sat before the UN General Assembly. Finally! Crossed off my list! Thank you also for helping!” [Gates] responded, “Let’s follow through and make sure the date is confirmed by the NSC. Did he tell you who gave him the date?” [Broidy] replied, “‘Thank you!! Fantastic. Given to [Person H a businessman friend of Trumps who was also approached by Broidy to help arrange the meeting] by [John Kelly].”

63. On or about July 27, 2017, [Broidy] texted [Gates], “Just checked again with [Malaysia]. Their Amb to US and Foreign Minister have heard nothing. Please check asap. Best, [].” [Broidy] followed up with, “Hi [Rick Gates]- Can you call NSA for me re [Malaysia] receiving official word. Still no contact from NSC to [Malaysia] Amb on meeting. Thank you. Best, []” [Gates] responded,”[] will call again this morning. Talked to [] briefly yesterday …. Will call shortly.”

On or about July 29, 2017, relaying information that she received from [Pras Michel] on behalf of [Jho Low], DAVIS texted [Broidy] in reference to the meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister A and the President, “They were told 12 sept is mtg. That’s day that un general assembly stars- it’s a Tuesday???? No golf??” DAVIS immediately followed by texting “Wicla[.]” [Broidy] responded, “May be two mtgs. Amb should ask. Golf at Bedminster on Sat and tues at WH?”

Alas, after the months of lobbying, for which the back-door influencers had been secretly paid millions out of Jho Low’s loot from 1MDB, the clash with the start of the UN Assembly put an end to all Najib’s plans for a glorious game of golf with the President of the United States.

Broidy had either been unlucky or outplayed by White House officials who appeared to have become less than keen at the thought of the President being seen to socialise so openly with a head of state who was seen as up to his neck in a kleptocracy scandal under investigation by their own Department of Justice.

For all Malaysia’s money Najib was reduced to the indignity of a short visit to the White House where the entire proceedings were formally recorded (including his begging speech offering to pour Malaysian money into the US) and then uploaded onto the internet.

The prosecution papers also include references to the so-called “Talking Points” that had been drawn up by Broidy and Gates to be sent to the Secretary of State in order to brief the President about Najib’s messages for his meeting. Top of the agenda was 1MDB and the Prime Minister’s desire to see the DOJ’s case closed down on the threat of a down turn of relations between the two countries. The talking points had been drawn up and sent to Broidy by Jho Low:

DAVIS received the talking points from [Pras Michel] -who provided them on behalf of [Jho Low] -and relayed them to [Broidy], knowing that [Broidy] would then provide them to the Secretary of State as background for the meeting. The talking points mentioned, among other things, [Broidy’s] ongoing relationship and work with [Malaysia], and identified lMDB as a “[p]riority[.]” The talking points noted the lack of harm caused by lMDB, and specified that “[t]he involvement of US prosecutors has caused unnecessary tension American [sic], and could cause a negative reaction among Malaysians[.]”

All in all the prosecutors allege that Broidy “greatly exaggerated his efforts regarding the lMDB investigation” and that Najib achieved few of his aims, since the Department of Justice was not prevailed upon to drop the case over 1MDB.

On the other hand, whilst this recent set of charges are only directed against the lobbyist Nickie Lum Davies the likelihood of further actions against Elliot Broidy seem almost inevitable given his involvement in the secret lobbying described.

This is not least because the charges continue to detail a second secret undertaking that Lum Davies embarked upon for Jho Low in which Broidy became equally involved together with the already indicted Pras Michel and his lawyer George Higginbotham.

This was the intensive lobbying of Broidy’s same set of contacts in the White House on behalf of China to influence the Americans to extradite a wanted exile and critic of the Chinese state, namely Steve Bannon’s own client Guo Wenghui (as reported by Sarawak Report earlier this year).

Broidy travelled to Shenzhen in China, together with Pras Michel and Lum Davies at Jho Low’s request, to meet with Jho and a Chinese Minister who sought a visit to Washington DC to cut a deal to enforce a Red Notice request put out on the billionaire businessman by the Chinese authorities.

The lobbyists agreed to assist Jho Low’s Chinese state clients in this matter and he later paid them a total of $10 million, according to court papers.

Broidy then proceeded to lobby his contacts in the State Department and influential friends and advisors to Donald Trump seeking to get high level meetings for the minister during his visit to DC and to organise a prisoner swap that would have included sending Guo back to his almost certain execution back in China.

“This is a cluster fl:*]ck”!

Again, officials in Washington prevailed against such lobbying and Broidy failed to pull off a meeting either with Attorney General Jeff Sessions or National Security Advisor H R McMaster as expected.

When it turned out that H R McMaster, instead of being in Washington to meet with the Vice Minister, was away in Haiti, Brody’s clients were most unhappy:

“Just spoke to VM and he sounded like he was crying[said Davies]” [Broidy] responded, “Terrible. What a mess. Bottom line not our fault. Normally their Amb would handle. This is a cluster fl:*]ck.”

On or about May 31, 2017, DAVIS texted [Broidy] with respect to PRC Minister A’s purported meeting with Person I [H R McMaster], “In principal [Person I] us ok- just a schedule issue?” [Broidy] responded, “Just a short notice scheduling issue. Still might hear in next hour or so. There is no issue with [PRC Minister A].” [Broidy] later continued, “Please pass along my good wishes to the VM. Wait a little while longer.” DAVIS responded, “Yes, I’m telling him that.” Person B replied, “Tell him I’m telling WH and [Attorney General] what happened.” DAVIS then texted,”Isn’t [Person I] scheduled to be in Haiti this afternoon?” [Broidy] responded, “Scheduler did not mention this?? Are you sure? Neither did [Attorney General’]s people[.]” DAVIS responded, “It’s on the DHS website[.] He’s there for the afternoon[.] Just spoke to VM and he sounded like he was crying[.]” [Broidy] responded, “Terrible. What a mess. Bottom line not our fault. Normally their Amb would handle. This is a cluster fl:*]ck.”

Given the content of the Hawaii court case speculation is now raging that there is likely to be a further imminent arrest of yet another former high profile Trump advisor. Broidy resigned in 2018 following revelations of a secret settlement organised by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen (now himself jailed) between him and a pregnant Playboy model.

Malaysians can perhaps take heart that almost as many high profile people have been shamed and arrested in the United States as in Kuala Lumpur, and plenty of them over 1MDB.

READ THE FULL COURT FILING

However, the latest criminal indictment brought by US prosecutors in Hawaii is likely to make that already unconvincing line of defence even harder to sustain for the ex-PM, currently facing his second trial following his conviction in the first.

The reason being that the case against a well-known local political lobbyist, 45-year-old Nickie Mali Lum Davis, shows that it was none other than Jho Low who was directly involved in paying a group of Republicans to organise Najib’s high profile trip to Washington in September 2017 to visit President Donald Trump, as part of a concerted strategy to force the Department of Justice to drop its cases over 1MDB.

After Jho Low fixed the trip, paid the lobbyists $8 million for their services and set in motion plans to shelve the case, Najib duly turned up in Washington to beguile President Trump with promises of massive Malaysian investment in the American economy (making sure to occupy the Trump Hotel with scores of his extended entourage for several nights).

It raises the inevitable question, how could Malaysia’s Prime Minister not have known what was going on and claim not have been in communication with the top fixer in these and so many other efforts to cover up 1MDB during 2017?

The case against Lum Davis joins the dots between several 1MDB players already identified by Sarawak Report (see base of report).  It reveals the lobbyist accepted cash from foreign actors to lobby President Trump and his administration without registering those payments according to the law.

The Indictment opens:

From no later than March 2017 to at least in or about January 2018, NICKIE LUM DAVIS agreed with Persons A and B [identified by Sarawak Report as singer Pras Michael and Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee Elliot Broidy] to act as agents of Foreign National A [Jho Low] in exchange for millions of dollars in undisclosed wire transfers originating from foreign accounts associated with Foreign National A. DAVIS specifically agreed to facilitate Person B’s lobbying of the President of the United States (“the President”), his Administration, and the United States Depa1tment of Justice (“DOJ”) to drop the investigation of Foreign National A for his role in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (“lMDB”), a strategic investment and development company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. As part of their efforts, the defendant [Nickie Lum Davies] and Person B [Elliot Broidy] willfully failed to disclose to the Administration and DOJ officials that Person B was acting on behalf of Foreign National A [Jho Low].”

The indictment makes clear the attempts were unsuccessful, since the DOJ did not suspend the case. However, prosecutors are demanding a return of all the money received by the lobbyist with a potential penalty of imprisonment.

The filing is part of a wider DOJ investigation that has unravelled how Jho Low sought to influence the US government on behalf of Najib and also China involving a wide network of Americans now facing charges or likely to face charges.

The include a government lawyer George Higgenbotham who has pleaded guilty over his involvement and to misleading banks about the source of payments from Jho Low; the celebrity rapper and friend of Jho Low, Pras Michael, who is defending his case and Elliot Broidy one of the most senior fundraisers in the Republican Party, who together with his lawyer wife now stand accused of devastating revelations over their role in selling access to Najib.

See the report filed on Hawaiian TV News and Sarawak Report will shortly bring full details on the devastating allegations and likely developments in this story,

Read also:

https://www.sarawakreport.org/2020/06/jho-lows-1mdb-diplomacy-role-for-china/
https://www.sarawakreport.org/2018/12/astonishing-new-twist-in-1mdb-saga-puts-us-lobbying-industry-in-the-frame/
https://www.sarawakreport.org/2018/03/the-president-wants-you-re-elected-prime-minister/
https://www.sarawakreport.org/2019/05/star-rapper-accused-of-channelling-1mdb-money-to-influence-us-democrats/

Everyone knows what that means when it comes to politics in Malaysia.

A recording later proved the point, as he was heard strategising how to buy and bribe defectors using ministerial posts and illegal appointments to GLCs (all of which took place).

As for the rest? Naturally, the criminally charged kleptocrats from UMNO and the high-living prelates from PAS were only too eager to steer the way and take over the show – after all whom does decapitated Bersatu now really represent?

As a result, Malaysia is being run by the same old mafia politicians, treating the public to the same tired stories and shows of yore, all brought courtesy of the same post-retirement performers – prime amongst them ‘NGO Leader’ cum bankrupt, Ramesh Rao and ‘Investigative Journalist’ cum bankrupt, Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK).

Both have ended up subjects (yet again) of a police report today and Malaysians need no prompting to understand that at issue is a ‘Statutory Declaration’ first orchestrated into existence by Ramesh Rao and then ‘exposed’ by RPK on his site (who else would touch it?).

Rao (who once threatened to “burn alive” the editor of Sarawak Report) is an enthusiast of Rosmah Mansor (a mother to him). As the police report against him alleges, he persuaded the complainant, one Aidil Azim, to notarise a statutory declaration in June claiming Aidil had been paid for sex by UMNO’s prize target and repeated victim of gay sex accusations, the PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Azim says he was promised cash in return for allowing the would-be PKR leadership usurper and then defector Azmin Ali to utilise the declaration in some undisclosed way. Instead the document was given to RPK who published it and embarrassed Azim.

Who knows at this stage if any of what Azim alleges might be true? What he describes in his SD supposedly took place back in 2013 yet no concrete evidence has been provided even though the complainant, who claims he willingly did the job several times for money, must have known that Malaysia is seething with Anwar’s political enemies all desperate to just prove such an accusation.

What we do know is that we absolutely cannot trust the word of either Ramesh Rao or Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK).

Ramesh Rao is a habitual concoctor of fake confessions and is so bad at it he has been caught out time and again. When Sarawak Report became a target of a Ramesh Rao operation a former journalist, Sarawakian Lester Melanyi, openly admitted he was paid to make ridiculous allegations of forgery to undermine our exposes on 1MDB.

Lester was a sick and desperate man at the time, who sadly has since died. Rao had offered him money and Lester gamely earned it by issuing his string of lies, which were all easily disproved. Ramesh Rao walked away, but Lester became a laughing stock.

Before that Rao ruined another family’s life, when he acted as go-between to PI Bala after  his Statutory Declaration over the Altantuya case on behalf of Rosmah and Najib. As all Malaysia knows Najib and family members bribed and blackmailed Bala to change his story and take his family into exile

As ever, it was a lie. Bala later returned and revealed how he was bullied into changing his original declaration. Not long after Bala sadly also died. However, Rao was by no means done. As the 1MDB case started to explode it was none other than Ramesh Rao who again enticed Bala’s desperate widow to accept his cash in return for a statement retracting statements against Rosmah and Najib.

Except, Rao altered the statement she had been prepared to give, so she retracted it live, on camera at the very press conference they had called to pull off the stunt. It meant yet again the Ramesh Rao fake confession tactic exploded in his face and made matters worse for his patrons, by now well known to be Rosmah and Najib.

Rao’s loyalties are not in doubt. He broke down in emotion at Rosmah’s trial (at the very least the bankrupt would have been concerned at losing a likely key donor for the good works of his ‘NGO’) and at Najib’s conviction he posted libellous tweets against the judge for which he was questioned by police over contempt of court.

So little surprise, now things are ‘back to normal’, that Ramesh Rao is back peddling his trusty sideline in staged confessions. The surprise would be if this time any of it turned out to hold a shred of truth.

Another Routine Performer

So what of the publisher of all this ‘information’?  In Najib’s cheerleader RPK once again we have an all too familiar player following a familiar playbook. For years this blogger has proved an incontinent producer of wild and unverified defamation directed against those he has admitted he is paid to vilify.

Grainy and unverified video are as much his stock in trade as dodgy documents that are uncorroborated by evidence or facts.

In the past ‘RPK’ has accused Rosmah of commissioning murder and much more recently Azmin Ali of stealing hundreds of millions of ringgit.  Following re-alignments he has changed his tune towards them both and acts their agent.

Meanwhile, he has accused Sarawak Report, opposition leader Lim Guan Eng and countless others of largely unsubstantiated nonsense.

He hides in the UK to avoid legal action from angry targets.  However, he ought be wary that with his present story he is highly vulnerable under UK law, whether his allegations prove true or false. Since if what he claims were to be correct, he could be found guilty of an invasion of privacy, harassment and hate crime against consenting adults. If false, of gross libel exacerbated by homophobia.

So, once again, Malaysia has to stomach political vendetta waged through the agency of well known proven liars, employing the same old tired tactics without a shred of evidence so far to prove their tawdry accusations.

The fact that the man accused of commissioning all the fun, PKR defector Azmin Ali, was himself the recent target of exact same allegations but was saved from prosecution because  the previous government refused to stoop so low, only serves to remind how far backwards this back-end-obsessed coterie of outdated politicians has travelled since their backdoor coup overturned the elected government.

It also demonstrates how they are out of fresh ideas, out of fresh faces and dependent on tired out dirty tactics as they try to get yesterday’s men off the hook over their corruption trials and grab whatever remaining loot that their return to abuse of power can provide them with.