Monday, May 6, 2019

Tun Mahathir asked where the money stolen by Jho Low has gone to-He can start by looking at Petronas

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The Star and others have reported,quoting PM Mahathir:

"There is still a lot of money missing. The funds we have recovered are less than RM2bil.
"He (Jho Low) stole and lost it all. (With) 1MDB alone, he had taken RM42bil. Who got the money? Who is keeping the money? Where is the money?
The answer to at least part of the question may well lie within Petronas, which reports to the PM and the PM only. This writer and others have long contended that the CEPSA-Coastal Energy  deal brokered and financed in part by Jho Low and family needs to be  investigated by Malaysia, and the assets from that deal which involve Petronas seized.Tracing the assets will be a complex task but even here the US  Department Of Justice has already done the initial work. Reuters providedd an outline of the DOJ's work in this report  in 2017:

Money misappropriated from a Malaysian state fund was used to partly finance the $2.2 billion acquisition of Houston-based Coastal Energy in 2014, the U.S. government alleged in a lawsuit filed last week.

The assets involved in that deal include this:

In July 2012, Coastal entered into a Small Field Risk Service Contract ("RSC") with Petroliam Nasional Berhad ("PETRONAS") for the development and production of petroleum from the Kapal, Banang and Meranti cluster of small fields (the "KBM Cluster") offshore Peninsular Malaysia.  Coastal is the operator of the KBM Cluster fields and intends to hold a 70% equity interest alongside a 30% interest local partner.
Pursuant to the RSC, Coastal provides the upfront development capital and undertakes the development drilling and production of the KBM Cluster in exchange for a remuneration fee and recovery of costs, while PETRONAS remains the owner of the project. 
The KBM Cluster fields are located within 20 kilometers of each other in a water depth of 60 meters. The main oil reservoirs are Miocene aged sandstones ranging in depths from 3,800 feet to 7,800 feet.  In addition to the development program, the Company intends to conduct appraisal and step-out drilling to exploit further upside it sees in the properties.
Petronas' information on the above is likely to be the best available.
END 


To be read with
PM Mahathir hopes to recover at least USD 7 Billion stolen from 1MDB-So many obvious targets being ignored, especially KWAP's USD 1 B in Singapore.

Larry Low's Petronas concession PM-316 can be seized under AMLA-Why has this not been done?

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