RM2.6bn donor must officially confirm repayment

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The RM2.6bn donor must step out and official confirm if such a donation was made and how much was returned. The prime minister should then account for the difference.

This is in the light of the widespread scepticism that greeted the attorney general’s statement. Here’s an excerpt from a Dow Jones Business news report on the Nasdaq website:

A Saudi government official, while declining to comment specifically on the prosecutor’s statement, said the Saudi ministries of foreign affairs and finance had no information about such a gift and that a royal donation to the personal bank account of a foreign leader would be unprecedented. Representatives of the royal family couldn’t be reached for comment.

You remember what a big fuss was kicked up when certain NGOs received relatively small amounts of foreign funding?

Now, the BBC reports that the Saudi donation allegedly was to help Najib win the 5 May 2013 general election. If that is true, it amount to foreign interfererence in our general election.

The BBC report says:

The $681m (£479m) deposited in the bank account of Malaysian PM Najib Razak by Saudi Arabia was to help him win the 2013 elections, a Saudi source says.

Malaysia’s attorney general cleared Mr Najib of allegations of corruption on Tuesday after ruling that the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family.

Mr Najib had denied that the money came from state-owned investment fund 1MDB.

The Saudi source said the donation was made amid concern in Riyadh about the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, Malaysia’s opposition alliance included the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Its founders were inspired by the Brotherhood, although there is little evidence the Brotherhood actually has much support in Malaysia.

Mr Najib’s coalition went on to win the election, but with one of its poorest showings in more than 50 years in power.

The secretive donation to Mr Najib was allegedly paid over in several wire transfers between late March 2013 and early April 2013, just ahead of the election on 5 May.

The well-placed Saudi source, who has asked not to be named, told the BBC the payment was authorised from the very top – from Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah – with funds coming from both his personal finances and state funds.

Prince Turki bin Abdullah, one of the king’s sons, is reported to have had extensive business dealings in Malaysia.

The purpose of the donation was simple, said the Saudi source – it was to help Mr Najib and his coalition win the election, employing a strategic communications team with international experience, focusing on the province of Sarawak, and funding social programmes through party campaigning.

But why should the Saudis care about an election in a non-Arab country more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away? The answer, the source said, lay in their concerns over the rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they consider a terrorist organisation.

The Saudis were already upset at events in Egypt, where President Mohammed Morsi was busy consolidating the Brotherhood’s hold on the country.

It would be another three months before Mr Morsi was to be deposed by the army, and the Saudis were convinced that the opposition was being supported by the Brotherhood and Qatar, which backed the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in the Middle East.

‘Very murky’

So how unusual is it for the Saudi royal family to hand over this amount of cash in a personal donation? Not at all, said the Saudi insider, adding that Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan have all been beneficiaries of multi-$100m donations from the Saudi royal purse.

“There is nothing unusual about this donation to Malaysia,” he said. “It is very similar to how the Saudis operate in a number of countries.”

Saudi Arabia was quick to support the overthrow of Mr Morsi in Egypt, providing the military-backed government with billions of dollars in aid and loans.

Jordan has been the beneficiary of more than $1bn in Saudi development funding, while Riyadh has deposited more than $1bn in Sudan’s central bank and signed deals to finance dams on the Nile. Morocco has been provided with oil, financing, investments and jobs in recent years.

However, questions are still being asked about the secretive and convoluted nature of the money transfer, and the fact that Malaysia’s prime minister returned 91% of it just four months later. The remaining $61m has not been accounted for.

A British corporate investigator with extensive experience of the Middle East told the BBC that the $681m was paid through the Singapore branch of a Swiss bank owned by the rulers of Abu Dhabi.

“It is very murky”, he said. “This case will never be fully cleared up until the Saudis and the Malaysians release all the transaction data, and that has not happened.”

So the transaction data must be released as well as the banking channels of receipt and the “return” of the balance of the “donation”.

Najib has to give a full accounting of how the difference was spent on the general election, if the report is true. That itself raises all kinds of questions about the integrity of the electoral process and the outcome.

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benny
benny
7 Feb 2016 4.00pm

Mystery has deepened over the circumstances in which almost $US700 million (RM2.6 billion) was secretly deposited in the personal bank account of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. The country’s attorney-general, Mohamad Apanda Ali, has declared the money was a donation from one of the nine sons of the late Saudi king Abdullah, but insists the motive is nobody else’s business. “Why are people asking for the reason for the donation? You have to ask the donor. He has billions in his coffers … if he wanted to give the money, what’s the problem?” Mr Apandi told the Sin Chew Daily… Read more »

Don Anamalai
Don Anamalai
20 Feb 2016 8.19pm
Reply to  benny

Editor of Wall Street Journal dismissed claims that RM2.6 billion in Najib Razak’s private accounts were from the Saudis. WSJ is said to have evidence to show that it came from accounts related to 1MDB.

benny
benny
29 Jan 2016 1.30pm

CNBC: Why Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal is denting growth

Thought the long-running political scandal over Malaysia’s deeply indebted sovereign fund was over?

It isn’t and the festering scandal is likely to weigh on the economy and may eventually spur a ratings downgrade, Oxford Economics says.

That’s bad news for Malaysia, which is already suffering from a slide in the price of commodities, an important chunk of the economy and a key source of revenue for the government. The currency has tumbled and the government’s debt levels have climbed, fueling investor concerns.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/28/malaysias-1mdb-scandal-denting-growth-oxford-economics.html

Bigjoe
Bigjoe
28 Jan 2016 10.21am

ACTUALLY NOT REALLY..Apandi Ali’s presentation on SRC’s monies PROOFED that Najib HAD BROKEN THE LAW.. Najib should be charged already. The ex-KL CID Chief case is EVEN LESS EVIDENCE and he was charged. The generalisation of innocent by Apandi Ali is very Half-Ass job. The question is WHY THE HURRY? Its very badly done..The seem to have spend a lot of time on the Saudi excuse, probably gotten deep inside the Royal Family to get cover..

Officially, we are no longer a country governed by law, its governed by BRUTE POWER..

zack
zack
29 Jan 2016 11.33am
Reply to  Bigjoe

Apandi is appointed by Najib to rescue him from MACC.
The MACC chief should be brave to counter AG.
But he is likely playing safe to save his pension.

Abb
Abb
27 Jan 2016 10.52pm

Anil
They just blocked another site
Won’t be surprise u r next
N other blogs critical of cash is king
A democratic govt to emulate?

tunglang
27 Jan 2016 10.33pm

Lu ingat kita semua orang bodoh! Apa Dei!
After all the money going thro’ the many lubang (with such complexity & tutup lubang), you think we believe a human can so easily return the Sheik donation money bigger than many lotteries combined?
According to the Law of Attraction, this donation story attracts more doubts than “I want to believe Apa Dei”

lim
lim
28 Jan 2016 6.58pm
Reply to  tunglang

We are cap ayam, we cakap ayam, no worry, we know how to spin, one story a time… Malaysians can be easily kau tim…

calvinsankaran
27 Jan 2016 5.24pm

I concur with you….Najib has to provide more details on the repayment. While he might be legally cleared, he has the moral responsibility to all Malaysians to provide such details.

On the same topic, I hope PH folks, especially DAP, walk their talk and declare their sources of election funding too. Anyone who is familiar with DAP will know that they received very generous donations (albeit smaller than the Rm2.6B that Najib received). This funding has skyrocketed since 2007.

lim
lim
27 Jan 2016 9.32pm
Reply to  calvinsankaran

Yes, 1pm is “legally” cleared in this kk land !!!

… DAP received very generous donation of 6.2b in the past???

We are what we are today is entirely due to our idiotic mentality !!! Only the Creator of the universe can save this nation…

Zuan
Zuan
28 Jan 2016 12.32pm
Reply to  calvinsankaran

You must have been deceived by Umno propaganda that DAP got funding from Israel. This is the usual trick from Umno as it is worried that many young Malays are now joining DAP.

lim
lim
28 Jan 2016 7.02pm
Reply to  Zuan

Zuan, you can see, some they thought they are smart but they are fools actually… sad

Charmaine
Charmaine
28 Jan 2016 1.25pm
Reply to  calvinsankaran

The fact that Najib has never been honest and direct in answering the allegation from the beginning. He was twisting here and there. Finally he had to resort to appointing a new AG to clear his name. What a laughing stock to the whole world.

benny
benny
20 Feb 2016 2.56pm
Reply to  calvinsankaran

Berapa banyak MCA & Gerakan terima dr RM2.6b?

benny
benny
27 Jan 2016 4.23pm

Unanswered Questions on Malaysian PM’s RM2.6bil “Donation”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-qmOyJv58

benny
benny
27 Jan 2016 3.56pm

Mahathir wrote: ​I thought the MACC is an independent body. Now it seems it is subordinate to the A.G. and it takes orders from him. No wonder Malaysia is included among the ten most corrupt countries in the world. The Anti-Corruption Agency is not free.

http://chedet.cc/?p=1975

lim
lim
27 Jan 2016 5.22pm
Reply to  benny

Which institution in this tanah air is free and independent, then and now ??? They are the winners at all times and we are the losers all the time !!!

benny
benny
27 Jan 2016 3.48pm

According to BBC, Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah personally authorized a $681 million payment to Malaysian PM Najib.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/01/27/rm2_08bil-from-saudi-royals-reports-bbc/

Zuan
Zuan
28 Jan 2016 12.31pm
Reply to  benny

Saudi gave money to Najib to counter the threat of Brotherhood Of Islam?
But PAS is aligned with Brotherhood Of Islam.
So how can Umno now collaborating with PAS, having taken the money from Saudi?

Charmaine
Charmaine
28 Jan 2016 1.27pm
Reply to  benny

King Abdullah is already dead. So he could not deny paying Najib.
If Najib is so close to Saudi, then he should order Saudi and OPEC to cut oil production the arrest the falling price in order to help our economy.