By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
A senior government minister has confirmed that a "Malaysian Official 1" mentioned by the United States Department of Justice in a corruption scandal involving Malaysia's state investment vehicle is Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Suspicion that the premier had been Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) had brought people onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur, nearly a thousand marching in the heart of the Malaysian capital last month calling for the then unconfirmed high-ranking government official’s arrest.
On Friday, Anis Syafiqah Mohd Yusof, who organized an Aug. 27 street rally, called for Razak to digest the facts and resign for the “betterment of the country”.
"We are responsible of correcting the wrong. All this while, it was an unnamed MO1... but now [it] has been confirmed as the prime minister by his government," she told Anadolu Agency in a telephone conversation.
"So, PM Najib must be a gentleman in politics and resign."
In a statement issued late Thursday, minister in the prime minister's department, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, said the fact that Razak is MO1 cannot be denied due to extensive descriptions given in the U.S. case.
"It is obvious that the so-called MO1 referred to by the U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ] is our prime minister," Dahlan said.
In a civil suit filed in July, the U.S. referred to MO1 -- used 36 times in the case -- as an official connected to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) from which vast sums of money were diverted.
The DOJ wants to seize assets bought with more than $3.5 billion it says was stolen from 1MDB, from which MO1 is alleged to have received some $681 million.
The money was allegedly laundered through "complex transactions and fraudulent shell companies" with bank accounts located in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the U.S. -- to finally land in the accounts of the MO1.
The term was widely understood to refer to the premier, but had not previously been officially confirmed.
On Thursday, however, Dahlan claimed Razak was only referred to in the case, but was not named as a subject of the investigation.
"As any lawyer will confirm, the difference between being named as the subject of a civil lawsuit, and merely being referred to in an investigation, is black and white," he said.
"After comprehensive investigations by multiple authorities, our prime minister has been cleared of any wrongdoing. So the evidence is clear."
In July, the DOJ filed a civil lawsuit seeking the forfeiture and recovery of more than $1 billion in assets linked to what it described in a statement as an "international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated" from 1MDB.
It described the case as the largest case ever brought by the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which found more than $3.5 billion in 1MDB funds were allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of the local state investment firm and their associates between 2009 and 2015.
1MDB -- a brainchild of Razak -- was established in 2009 to undertake key development projects in Kuala Lumpur and spur Malaysia’s economic growth.
Since then, the fund has been hit by controversy revolving around the 50 billion Ringgit ($12.9 billion) in debts it has incurred since inception.
U.S. prosecutors allege that the 1MDB money was embezzled and laundered into the U.S., from where it was used to buy luxury properties, paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, a $35 million jet, to pay off gambling debts in Las Vegas, to invest in EMI Music and to fund the production of 2013 Hollywood movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
Among those named in the lawsuit were the movie's co-producer and Razak's stepson Reza Aziz, a Malaysian businessman linked to Razak, Jho Low, and prominent Middle East businessmen Khadem Abdulla Al-Qubaisi and Mohammed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.
In July 2015, the Wall Street Journal and whistle blower site Sarawak Report released reports quoting documents, which they claimed to be from an ongoing Malaysian 1MDB probe, claiming $700 million moved among 1MDB-linked government agencies, banks and entities before finally ending up in Razak’s personal accounts in five separate deposits.
Razak immediately said that he had not swindled funds for personal gain -- as alleged by political opponents -- be they from 1MDB, the finance ministry's SRC International -- a former 1MDB subsidiary -- or other entities.
A month later, the Attorney-General Chambers ruled that the funds were political donations to the Razak-led UMNO for the party to remain in power during the last general election.
Politicians within UMNO proudly declared that the funds came from "Middle East Royals" who wanted UMNO to retain control.
Razak, however, kept silent on the matter, saying political donations were confidential and he would only reveal the donors if opposition parties agreed to follow suit.
On Jan. 26, Malaysia’s Attorney General Apandi Ali ruled out wrongdoing by Razak in connection with the “political donation".
1MDB, meanwhile, has denied it was a party to the civil suit brought by the U.S. government.
It has also denied claims it had assets in the U.S., and underlined that it has not benefited from the various transactions described in the suit.
