Malaysia's 1MDB prosecutors seem shy, afraid of working with their US counterparts-Why?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Arul Kanda Kandasamy, former head of defunctn state investment fund 1MDB, 
leaves Kuala Lumpur High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. 
 Malaysia has charged Goldman Sachs and seems to be going it alone without the DOJ

Reports this week about the US Department Of Justice's investigation into Goldman Sachs' part in the 1MDB theft reveal a disturbing lack of  cooperation from Malaysian prosecutors who are also pursuing Goldmans.

In the matter of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA against TIM LEISSNER,
the following was revealed:

Throughout 2012 and 2013, the defendant TIM LEISSNER conspired with others, including Co-Conspirator #1 and Co-Conspirator #2, to obtain and retain business from lMDB for the benefit of U.S. Financial Institution #1 through the promise and payment of bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi using, in pati, misappropriated and embezzled proceeds from lMDB bond transactions. During this time, through the course of the scheme, LEISSNER, together with Co-Conspirator #1, Co-Conspirator #2 and others, paid millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to government officials, and obtained lMDB business for U.S. Financial Institution #1, in patiicular, three bond offering transactions underwritten by U.S. Financial Institution #1 for lMDB referred to as "Project Magnolia," "Project Maximus" and "Project Catalyze." 



Given the finding that Leissner and his co-conspirators  paid millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to (Malaysian) government officials, why are not Malaysian prosecutors working together with their DOJ counterparts? Given the Malaysian investigations into former PM Najib Razak over the  past five years and especially in the past year and a half since the change in government much has been learnt which would have helped the DOJ case.

Additionally, given the extensive DOJ investigations the Malaysian evidence is likely to have been strengthened. 

This reticence by Malaysian prosecutors to work with the DOJ has been evident throughout the SRC trial where none of the very extensive DOJ data was ever mentioned.


Meanwhile, it does appear as if the rest of the world led by the DOJ is pursuing the 1MDB matter with greater vigour and skill than Malaysia.


This week Bloomberg  reported:

Andrea Vella was Goldman Sachs’s top dealmaker in Hong Kong. He had a nose for splashy trades, a fondness for the Bentley Continental, and a vague enough resemblance to George Clooney that there was even a joke among some bankers: “What would George do?”

That was almost a year ago. Then U.S. prosecutors dragged him into one of the biggest Wall Street scandals in a generation. Without charging him, they filed court documents tying Vella to the conspiracy that looted billions of dollars from the Malaysian investment fund known as 1MDB. The bank promptly put him on leave.

Now as the U.S. weighs how to handle Goldman Sachs, Vella is the mystery man to watch. If someone so powerful is found to have helped fuel the fiasco, it will be much harder for the bank to contain it by pinning blame on a rogue partner, Tim Leissner.

During confidential talks, the bank has been at odds with prosecutors over their description of Vella’s role in key moments of the 1MDB deals, according to people familiar with the discussions. Authorities have said that he dealt with the scandal’s alleged mastermind, Jho Low, and was aware of plans to bribe officials -- a narrative Goldman has been disputing.

There’s another reason Vella’s involvement strikes a nerve. He helped structure 1MDB’s fundraising, and after money went missing played a central role in Goldman’s initial review of what went wrong, one of the people said. When U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn described his involvement in court filings last year, without naming him, it alarmed some members of Goldman’s board, who worried the claims might further taint the firm’s senior leadership, two people said.

Malaysian prosecutors who have charged 17 Goldman executives with 1MDB related crimes in Malaysia have not charged Vella despite his central role.

END 

NSW AG attempted to evade information and queries on political donor Minshen Zhu: AG has a duty to ensure that Zhu is registered as a foreign agent, but instead grants Zhu rights,privileges, never before (and since) granted a private entity

by Ganesh Sahathevan



The AFR and others reported this week that Channel Nine had been the subject of a Commonwealth Attorney General's Department query with regards the Commonwealth's foreign influence transparency register:

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks told the inquiry on Tuesday the broadcaster had received a "chilling" letter from the Attorney-General's Department advising the company to conduct a self-assessment to see whether it should register on the government's foreign influence transparency register following a report on One Nation Senate candidate Steve Dickson's seedy behaviour in a US strip club.

Mr Dickson had been filmed by Qatari government-owned broadcaster al-Jazeera's undercover investigative team for a story on links between One Nation and US gun lobby. Al-Jazeera said the footage was leaked to Channel Nine's A Current Affair program without its permission.

Attorney-General Department's deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey denied the government had overreached by contacting Channel Nine over the broadcast.

Right or wrong the example above provides a benchmark against which other similar cases can be compared.

The case of Minshen Zhu is well reported (see for example story below) and as a result of an ongoing investigation by this writer Zhu's  dealings with the Attorney General NSW, Mark Speakman, and his NSW Liberal Part ,are now slowly coming to light. 

Despite the very many reports about Zhu and his work with and for the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Government Speakman does not seem to have done anything to address the issue of Zhu and his Top Group's obligations with regards their registration on the government's foreign influence transparency register; in fact it does appear as if AG Speakman and his officers are happy to encourage and defend Zhu and Top Group's activities even if they are in breach of that Commonwealth requirement. 

The AG and his officers at the Legal Profession Admission Board NSW have evaded questions about their  dealings with Zhu by relying on the increasingly common "too many emails" excuse which is in fact a threat-as Sydney lawyer Jonathan Bolton discovered, the excuse of "too many emails" can be turned into a criminal matter that involves detention by the NSW Police. 


Meanwhile despite the 2015/2016  political donation scandal involving Top Group and its CEO and Principal  Zhu, the LPAB  and the AG have  continued to allow Top and  Zhu the right to grants LLBs and  exercise powers pursuant to Rule 19 of the Uniform Law, which allows them to determine if a law graduate  is fit and proper for admission to practice law in NSW and Australia.Those privileges have never before been granted a private entity let alone a foreign entity with close links to a foreign government that does not share Australia's legal traditions.


It is time that the Member for Cronulla answers serious questions about his dealings and that of his officers with Minshen Zhu and his Top Education Group Ltd. 




END 

SEE ALSO 


Minshen Zhu: the fine art of one man’s brush with power

• KYLAR LOUSSIKIAN

  
• 12:00AM SEPTEMBER 2, 2016
• COMMENTS

Minshen Zhu is without doubt one of the most politically-connected calligraphy academics anywhere.

Heading the hierarchy at the Top Education Institute, the education outfit at the centre of the funding scandal putting new scrutiny on the impact of foreign political donations, Dr Minshen has enjoyed access to heavyweight political leaders in both China and Australia.

It was revealed this week that Top Education paid a $1600 travel bill for Labor senator Sam Dastyari. That news came in the midst of heightened concerns about the effect of more than $5.5 million donated to Labor and the Coalition by Chinese-linked companies between 2013 and last year.

READ NEXT

• 
  TELECOMS
  Telstra profit plunges 40pc
  SUPRATIM ADHIKARI

Dr Minshen’s reach, from within a humble college in inner-city Sydney, affords a rare public glimpse of academia in the service of Chinese government soft power. He is on the board of the University of Sydney’s Confucius Institute, an organisation run by the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and one which has been criticised in the past for skirting around difficult topics, including the future of Tibet, as part of teaching at a number of universities around the world.

Dr Minshen has, in the past, been an overseas delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a body with arguably little real power but prestigious among the country’s political elites.

He has met leaders celebrating Chinese New Year in 2013 with then prime minister Julia Gillard, whose government appointed him to a ministerial consultative committee on Chinese matters.

He is even closer to the Chinese leadership, with the Top Education website meticulously noting meetings with then-vice president Xi Jinping and then-vice premier Li Keqiang.

A Top Education spokeswoman yesterday declined to answer questions about how Dr Minshen forged close ties with political leaders after starting his career at Fudan University and later graduating with a PhD in Chinese linguistics, ancient characters and calligraphy from the Australian National University.

He is but one of many politically well-connected academics found at the Confucius Institutes around the country, though the institute has been evicted from some universities elsewhere in the world after being found to restrict academic freedom and having been accused in one case as a front for espionage.

A survey published by the Parliamentary Library in late 2014 detailed how Chinese Communist Party “cadres” were involved in several Australian universities. The vice-chairman of the University of Queensland’s Confucius Institute, Liu Jianping, is also party committee head at Tianjin University, the report found.

Declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service reports, published as far back as 2007, portray a calculated use of the Confucius Institute to achieve “a more prominent place in China’s efforts to increase its standing in the world”.

After Heather Cooks testimony, will anyone in this region take her and ASIO seriously (assuming they ever did)

by Ganesh Sahathevan

We  would have never known:

Heather Cook, Deputy Director-General of ASIO, said journalism is being used as a cover by foreign intelligence actors.CREDIT:AAP

"These foreign intelligence actors seek to exploit vulnerabilities in our legal system in order to harm Australia's security and to recruit individuals who can assist them in their goals," said ASIO deputy director-general Heather Cook.

"In Australia today, journalism is being used as a cover by foreign intelligence actors. And there is a long history of this worldwide."

The agency noted journalism was a convenient cover for espionage as both occupations rely on access to senior people and sensitive information. Ms Cook said some journalists had reported to ASIO their attempted recruitment by foreign spies.

"In light of this, ASIO has concern about the concept of exemptions for particular classes of people in the community, such as journalists. Broad exemptions for the media and journalists would invite exploitation by foreign intelligence actors and may increase the intelligence threat faced by Australian journalists," she said.

Either very stupid or very cunning ,but one suspects that most "foreign intelligence actors" in this region would consider the fact that Cooks found it useful to  Australian national security to make these statements incredibly stupid. 

END 

SEE ALSO

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Leaks from within the Australian Intelligence Community, incompetence, real reasons why allies have curtailed intelligence sharing:Nick Warner blaming leaks to journalists a poor attempt at blame shifting

by Ganesh Sahathevan


PHOTO: Nick Warner warns other countries will not hand over intelligence if they think it could be leaked. (AAP: Alan Porritt)


Nick Warner will know this to be untrue:


"The unauthorised disclosure or publication of foreign partner information could have serious ramifications, including putting at risk Australia's relationship with those partners and that country," Mr Warner said.


"Put simply, if those partners do not trust Australian intelligence agencies to keep their intelligence information secret, they will not share it."


The real and historical concern for  Australia's foreign intelligence partners has been  with leaks from within the Australian Intelligence community, civil servants and politicians, to other foreign agencies. The following are examples of incidents over the years.

First:

In 1948, after the US government decided Australia was a security risk and banned the sharing of classified information, Britain's Security Service (MI5) assisted in planning a new Australian security intelligence service. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), was established by the Chifley government on 16 March 1949. It took over the security functions of the Commonwealth Investigation Service and was concerned with any threats of espionage and sabotage, and with subversive actions by people or organisations.

 Then in the 1990s: 

From the ABC Four Cormer's story When Spies Fight, in 2001 by Andrew Fowler:

The Office of National Assessments provides overall strategic and diplomatic analysis to the Federal Government.

The Defence Intelligence Organisation, where Jenkins worked, and the Office of National Assessments dealt separately with the CIA.

It was a time the Americans needed Australian expertise to help understand the events which would culminate in the downfall of Soeharto's Indonesian regime.

The CIA became concerned that information was being held back.

PROFESSOR DES BALL: ONA during that period was really quite complacent.

The view in ONA was that not only is Indonesian stability essential to Australian security, but because of our close intelligence and military links with Indonesia, we could pretty much guarantee that Indonesian stability and hence, indirectly, our own security.

And the notion that there was some finite length of time on Soeharto's life or on his reign or on his tenure never seemed to have crept into ONA analysis up until 1998.

ANDREW FOWLER: What did the Americans, and the CIA in particular, think of the kind of analysis they were getting through their major liaison partner in Washington?

PROFESSOR DES BALL: I think it's quite clear that CIA thought that the material coming from ONA was quite inadequate.

It was inadequate because it was insufficiently detailed.

It was inadequate because it tended to be anodyne, rather than coming to sharp conclusions.

And then there is the problem of New Zealand:

New Zealand's Five Eyes membership called into question over 'China links'

And as detailed in the reports below, Australia's leadership also has links to the Chinese Communist Party, and these too are likely to be of concerns to our allies. 

Compare all of the above to Warner's comments about leaks to the media being a threat to intelligence sharing, and it becomes clear that Warner is lying, probably in an attempt to shift blame away from the Australian Intelligence Community. 

END 

see also

Aunty's sneering aside, ASIO effectively kept communists in check

Chinese Spies and Our National Interest - Quadrant Online

1MDB ,The Anwar Ibrahim phase: Racial conflict seems the next phase

by Ganesh Sahathevan





And so it has come to this.A useful idiot has decided to take sides, with Anwar Ibrahim against Mahathir Mohamad. Not satisfied to do go it alone he has decided to involve members of his race and religion, and his Hindu temple.

Add this idiot's prayers  to the demands of the other useful idiots, Charles Santiago and Ronnie Liu, and one can see clearly drawn lines of racial conflict, all it seems with the singular purpose of making Dato Seri Dr Anwar Ibrahim Prime Minister of Malaysia, putting him (at long last) in charge of Petronas.
Of course, it will also be his duty to recover all that 1MDB money.
END




SEE ALSO 

Thursday, September 13, 2018

1MDB-The Anwar Ibrahim phase (Coming soon, ask UMNO and PAS about it)

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (left) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) pose for a photo before a meeting in Istanbul on June 20, 2018. -AP

Anwar Ibrahim, the Nelson Masndela of South East Asia, the Alexander The Great of our times(yes,someone actually described him thus) is seeking to set himself on the path to his  Prime Ministership.

That he has chosen a very safe seat suggests that while he and his family see his appointment (for demi-gods are not elected) as PM a matter of right, they  would rather not tempt fate.How else does one explain the bizarre dismissal of the still fresh Danyal Balagopal Abdullah as MP for Port Dickson,despite he winning the seat by a very comfortable margin?

Meanwhile , PAS and the MIC   have decided to not contest the seat,sharing it seems in the Anwar  dream.This then raises the now probability of a PKR -UMNO-PAS coalition sometime in the near future,  which then  brings one to the inevitable question:What becomes of the 1MDB investigation?

Simply put:Without the political will,this already complicated matter will flounder, and eventually die a natural death. Najib The Innocent may well make a comeback.Indeed given the Innocent One's confidence, one suspects that something is cooking. The US DOJ describes
1MDB in a number of phases, and we may well see the next phase, Anwar Ibahrim phase, where the Great Escape is engineered ,and executed.
Meanwhile, given Anwar's recent public support for the President Erdogan of Turkey, Anwar's Turkish connections are worth careful consideration (See article below).
END

Yassin Al-Kadi:A case of all roads leading to Anakara?

The New Anatolian of Turkey reported on February 23  2007:

Inspectors Hamza Kacar and Galip Sabuncu wrote a report in which they claimed that they had uncovered significant evidence of money movements linked to Yasin el Kadi (SDGT Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi) in Turkey, but added that their probe was blocked by certain bureaucrats and politicians.

The inspectors said that el Kadi's money movements were concentrated on Albaraka Turk, an Islamic finance institution….Kacar sent a letter to the Albaraka Turk on Nov. 5, 2003, asking the institution to whom el Kadi was making money transfers via the bank. The inspector also asked the meaning of two-letter codes in account abstracts of numerous companies of which al Kadi was a shareholder. Albaraka rejected the request and Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan forced the inspectors in early 2004 to complete their report in ten days. (http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-23456.html)

The report read in context of other information in the public domain links together  a number of persons whose names have featured prominently in the counter-terrorism financing literature.

In his book "Desperately Seeking Paradise" Zianuddin Sardar ,(usually
described as a London based Muslim moderate), gives an account of how
somewhere  around the time the   first Gulf War was about to or had commenced, he was persuaded  to fly to Saudi Arabia  at the invitation of certain wealthy Saudis to receive a grant of USD 5 million that was to  enable him to set-up a think tank that would put forward the Arab view.

Sardar was then in Malaysia, had reservations about making the trip, but
was persuaded to go by  Anwar Ibrahim, who was then  Minister
for Education but  about to appointed Minister for Finance.

Sardar writes that Anwar told him to accept their invitation, for the
Saudis had been on the phone to him rather often about the matter of
the gift to Sardar.
Sardar flew to Saudi Arabia,and went on to meet  Sheikh Saleh
Kamel,founder of the Al Baraka investment group.Also present at that
meeting was Anwar Ibarhim, who Sardar says had flown out separately in a Malaysian
government jet.

In September 1990  The Malaysian Ministry of Finance sold a 17.5 %
stake in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd , Malaysia’s first Islamic bank,  to JAMI Malaysia Sdn Bhd . Its shareholders were the New York-based Saar
Corporation,  the Saudi-based Al Rajhi,Banking and  Investment
Corporation (ARABIC)  and Salah Kamel's Al Baraka Group.
The minister for finance at that point  of time was Daim Zainuddin.

Bank Islam appears to have been involved in laundering funds belonging to the Third World Relief Agency; I have written about this previously in an article located at http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/11/jamal_barzinji_.html

Anwar Ibahim replaced Daim Zainuddin as Minister for Finance sometime  in 1991.

The company listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange  in 1992 .

In May 1994  the Ministry of Finance Inc (Anwar Ibrahim)  disposed of
its entire 21.14m shares in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd to Lembaga Urusan
dan Tabung Haji and Jami Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and ceased to be a
substantial shareholder. A total of 18.46m shares were sold to Lembaga
Urusan dan Tabung Haji bringing its stake in Bank Islam to 35.70m
shares, or 26.76%. The remaining 2.89m shares were sold to Jami
Malaysia, which was at that time  the registered holder of 5.27m
shares.

Jamal Barzinji, who heads the SAFA Trust which is part of the SAAR
Foundation,and who together with Anwar and others founded the
International Institute of Islamic Thought (he was at that time,as he
is now ,like Anwar a  director  of the IIIT)was appointed  a director
of the bank and appears to have remained as one until sometime in
2003(for further details see http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/11/jamal_barzinji_.html)

Later in 2002  it would be revealed in the affidavits of David Kane
that the IIIT  also was  funded by the SAAR Corporation and the SAFA
Trust.
That is, Anwar 's IIIT received funding from the SAAR Foundation at
the same time that he sold the SAAR Foundation the MOF's shares in
Bank Islam.

Then, in May 2006, Salah Kamel decided to float his banking assets on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. The now listed vehicle for the exercise, Al-Baraka Banking Group, (ABG)   raised some US$ 580 million in what was termed one of the biggest IPO's in the Middle East.

Anwar Ibrahim was appointed and remains a member of the ABG board.( see http://www.abg.bh/English/aboutboarddirectors.htm)

In 1991, SDGT Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi and two of Anwar Ibrahim ‘s closest associates, Drs  Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman and Rahim Ghouse, formed Abrar Inc, a fund management company. This business was to take many shapes and forms, particularly after its base of operations was moved to Malaysia. These matters have been written about extensively on this site. The most recent article can be sighted at http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/20

In September 2005, shortly after his release from prison , Anwar Ibrahim visited Turkey, at the invitation of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, for meetings with amongst others,  Erdogan and an adviser, Dr Ahmet Davutoglu.

The following has been said of Davutoglu:

Davutoglu has spent time in Malaysia and speaks highly of that
country's supposedly dynamic and rather unique combination of Islam,
capitalism, and democracy. It is no surprise, then, that in recent
months Erdogan has reached out to some unsavory characters in Turkey's
neighborhood, visiting President Bashar Assad in Syria earlier this
year and traveling to Tehran to meet the Iranian mullahs.

(Gerard Baker, Let's Not Talk Turkey ,The Weekly Standard,29 August 2005)

AKP  politician Ahmet Davutoglu, previously a professor at the
International Islamic University in Malaysia, and now an advisor to
both Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, argues
that Turkey can remain powerful only if it utilizes the "strategic
depth" of its neighborhood, developing better ties with those Muslim
neighbors with whom it shares cultural affinity. The world is composed
of cultural blocs, he writes, and Turkey falls into the "Muslim bloc."

(Soner Cagaptay, ANKARA DISPATCH,Eastern Heading; TNR Online | Post date 09.08.04)

Posted by Ganesh Sahathevan on February 28, 2007 at 17:51 | Permalink

Westpac's Fed Crt win can also mean a Westpac downgrade: Asian investors would not consider Westpac a safe investment given Perram J's peculiarly Australian judgement

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Westpac was downgraded by UBS in April this year due to the concerns raised in the royal commission about the quality of the lender’s mortgage book. Perram J's decision is likely to add to the concerns, especially in Asia


In Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Westpac Banking Corporation (Liability Trial) [2019] FCA 1244 (13 August 2019), Perram J said:


Whilst I accept that the ( National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth)) requires a credit provider to ask the consumer about their financial situation (s 130(1)(b)) and, in turn, to ask itself—and to answer—the s 131(2)(a) Questions, I do not accept that this has the further consequence that the credit provider must use the consumer’s declared living expenses in doing so.


While lawyers and judges may be able to perceive the wisdom and clarity of these words, to investors , especially from Asia, the words make little sense for they imply that a lender need not concern itself with what the borrower says about his or her living expenses ie his or her net cashflows.


Additionally, while ASIC's pleadings may well have been deficient (in Perram J's words “this case fails on the facts") the judgement does raise a question about what it is Australian courts consider to be relevant in matters that concern lending, if not net cashflows.



Consequently while Westpac can celebrate its victory over ASIC,investors, especially in Asia, are likely to re-assess Westpac's risk profile and the quality of its loan book,and in particular its consumer loan book. Of primary concern will be the quality of current loans.However there will also be concerns about future loan quality given the likely perception that Perram J's decision provides Westpac justification to grow its loan book unconstrained by considerations of borrowers' capacity to repay. His reference to spending on wagyu and shiraz, presumably in an attempt to quantify cash outflows, is not likely give investors any comfort.
Bankers who do not consider what their borrowers say they earn and spend to be relevant, while not uncommon in Asia, are also not considered a safe investment, either in shares or in deposits.


Australian courts have, even when considering insolvency, shown a tendency to disregard cashflows instead choosing to rely on their analysis of "all the circumstances of the case".

Perram's wagyu and shiraz explanation adds to the evidence that Australian lawyers and judges are not comfortable dealing with commercial matters, and worse, not capable of dealing with the increasingly technical nature of commercial transactions.


END

1MDB and the Singapore-Malaysia Water Agreements:Malaysia does have the option of terminating the agreements, and paying compensation (which may be much less than anyone imagines, and no more than what Singapore owes Malaysia)

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Contrary to Singapore's claims, the water agreements can not only be revised, they may be terminated. Claiming some special status for the agreements because they were "registered with tthe United Nations" is at best childish.  

This writer has previously raised the point that KWAP's RM 4 Billion seized by Singapore may be hostage to Malaysia-Singapore Water agreement negotiations


Having said that Malaysia does have the option of terminating the agreement, on the basis that it can no longer be performed:


Malaysia-Singapore Water Agreements: Singapore research reveals factors that have not been considered by Malaysia when determining price of raw water

If Malaysia chooses to do so, which it can, compensation may be payable, and it can be limited to that RM 4 Billion Singapore owes Malaysia. Singapore is not the only country in the world to face what it keeps referring to as an existential threat to its sovereignty;Egypt and Ethiopia have been having similar discussions for almost as long as Malaysia and Singapore. 

END 

1MDB:New allegations about the CEPSA-Coastal deal, involving Shell? More evidence that the 1MDB theft is closer to USD 20 Billion?

by Ganesh Sahathevan




Sarawakreport raised a number of questions about 1MDB and CEPSA in 2015 that remain unanswered: 1MDB's Aabar Connection - More Questions Over CEPSA’s Coastal Energy Buy Out With Jho Low


The CEPSA -Coastal Energy deal has been scrutinised and written about by this writer  in a number of articles:



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


Khadem al-Qubaisi and the Good Star commission: Najib's role as PM, FM & chairman 1MDB in payment of illegal commissions to Khadem now a matter of public record

MACC needs to seize the Larry Low -Coastal Energy-CEPSA Petronas concession::Khadem al Qubaisi's 15 year jail sentence makes it easier


In addition Sarawakreport raised a number of questions about 1MDB and CEPSA in 2015 that remain unanswered.

Against the backdrop of the above  come these allegations from a whistleblower website dedicated to Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which if true add weight to this writer's contention that the quantum of the  1MDB theft is closer to USD 20 Billion. If true it raises the possibility that 1MDB funds were channelled via a China or Hong Kong entity to finance CEPSA's acquisition of Coastal Energy, and possibly the expansion of Coastal's business in Malaysia.

The Allegations:

Mega corruption allegations from an authenticated Shell whistleblower

Aug 10th, 2019 

by John Donovan.

As you know I claim that the Coastal-CEPSA deal involved many people in a massive bribery scheme to facilitate the transfer of the Shell oil concessions in the United Arab Emirates, into the hands of Chinese National Oil company CNOOC.

Mega corruption allegations from an authenticated Shell whistleblower

Hi John

There are important developments taking place in the 1MDB case that hopefully, little by little will bring the heat closer to Shell management.

(See WSJ article link)

Malaysia Charges Goldman Sachs Executives in 1MDB Scandal

For your information. Goldman raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB through three bond sales in 2012 and 2013. U.S. authorities allege that more than $4.5 billion went to fraudulent shell companies controlled by corrupt officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. Goldman Sachs also advised on the deal to purchase Houston firm Coastal Energy on January 2014. Jho Low received a US$300 million kickback from Spanish oil company CEPSA one week after the deal was completed for brokering the deal.

As you know I claim that the Coastal-CEPSA deal involved many people in a massive bribery scheme to facilitate the transfer of the Shell oil concessions in the United Arab Emirates, into the hands of Chinese National Oil company CNOOC. The expiration of the UAE oil concessions took place simultaneously to the Coastal-CEPSA deal. 

END