Singapore to return stolen 1MDB money

Singapore to return stolen 1MDB money

Chester Tay

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 1, 2018.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s special task force investigating the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal is working with
its Singapore counterpart to recover money believed to have been misappropriated by the state-owned strategic investment
fund.

It said Singapore’s 1MDB Special Task Force has agreed to cooperate with its Malaysian counterpart to return monies.
Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force is led by former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, former Malaysian Anti-
Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, incumbent MACC chief Datuk Seri Mohd
Shukri Abdull and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) special branch department director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador,

In a statement, Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force said that during a meeting at 9.30am yesterday, it and Singapore’s 1MDB
Special Task Force agreed to cooperate to bring back funds related to 1MDB to the Malaysian government.

“This meeting today (yesterday) has agreed that both parties will collaborate to recover a total sum of monies to the Malaysian
government that have been allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB. The collaboration between both parties also aim at collecting
evidence and tracking down witnesses in Singapore as soon as possible,” it added.

“Apart from that, the Malaysian task force will also conduct [a] money trail to detect monies or assets that still exist,” it said,
adding that the meeting was attended by nine senior officers from Singapore’s task force, consisting of representatives from the
Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), the Commercial Affairs Department, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while
Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force has representatives from the AGC, MACC, PDRM and Bank Negara Malaysia.

Yesterday’s meeting came a week after Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force met officers from the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ), where both the US investigators agreed to offer their full
cooperation to the Malaysian authorities in the latter’s ongoing investigation into 1MDB.

Apart from authorities from Malaysia, Singapore and the US, 1MDB-related transactions also face probes in other countries
including Switzerland, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

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Singapore to return stolen 1MDB money

The Singapore authorities have previously taken action against several individuals such as ex-BSI Bank wealth planner Yeo
Jiawei for involvement in 1MDB-related money laundering activities, and ordered Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank’s Singapore
branch to cease operation, while withdrawing BSI Bank Ltd’s status as a merchant bank in Singapore.

Both financial institutions were involved in 1MDB-related transactions.

In Malaysia, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was summoned twice to provide his cooperation to the MACC’s
investigation last week.

Najib, who was formerly the chairperson of 1MDB’s advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing, and has pledged that the
administration he led previously will provide full cooperation to international investigations.

However, the FBI and DoJ last week revealed to Malaysia’s 1MDB Special Task Force that former MACC chief Tan Sri Dzulkifli
Ahmad and Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had not been responding to assistance requests from the US.

Dzulkifli tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the latter’s first working day after taking
over Putrajaya from Najib, subsequent to Pakatan Harapan’s historical victory in the 14th general election.

Apandi, meanwhile, has been told to go on leave while his duties will be temporarily taken over by Solicitor-General Datuk
Engku Nor Faizah Engku Atek.

After swearing in as the seventh PM, Dr Mahathir has been facilitating the resumption of investigation into 1MDB, such as travel
bans on several individuals who allegedly are involved in the scandal, including Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

The PDRM also conducted raids on 12 premises, including Najib’s private residence and three high-end apartments, two of them
linked to Najib’s two children Nooryana Najwa Najib and Ashman Najib.

Last week, Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh confirmed that the
amounts of cash seized from an empty apartment in the high-end Pavilion area in Kuala Lumpur amounted to RM114 million,
which were denominated in 26 currencies, the bulk of which were in ringgit, US dollars and Singapore dollars.

The seizure included 284 boxes of handbags, and 72 boxes of various other items, of which 35 boxes contained the RM114
million hard cash, while the remaining 37 boxes contained jewellery and watches.

In a statement last week, the finance ministry also confirmed that the former government, led by Najib, had bailed out troubled
1MDB through funds raised from Bank Negara Malaysia’s purchase of a piece of land for RM2 billion and RM3 billion of
redeemable cumulative convertible preference shares issued by Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

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