Monday, September 21, 2020

FinCEN Files: The real story may be in what the banks did not disclose; Wells Fargo-AmBank USD 681 Million 1MDB "donation" transaction might be an example of the magnitude of what has not been disclosed

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The ICIJ FinCEN Files story is interesting but the true story may be in what the banks have not disclosed.

Checking the section on Malaysia and then the Wells Fargo records suggests that the (in)famous 1MDB linked USD 681 Million "donation" which went from Wells Fargo to AmBank has not disclosed.

The transaction above occurred in 2013, well within the 2008-2017 period covered by the ICIJ FinCen files.

TO BE READ WITH

Thursday, August 6, 2015

On the matter of the US$ 681 million donation to Prime Minister Najib Razak: Sender did not describe payment as a donation

by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said that someone has sent him a donation of US$ 681 million, via Wells Fargo Bank of New York, using a BVI company (since liquidated) called Tanore Finance. That company was a client of Falcon Private Bank Of Singapore, which was the ordering institution for that wire transfer.

The Wall Street Journal which broke the story of that massive "donation" has placed on-line the relevant documents.

Readers are referred to pages 2 and 3 of the documents,and to the items marked 70-Remittance Information.
Curiously the transfers (the sum total was paid in two amounts) are described as "Payment" and not " Donation".
This is not a matter of mere semantics.In these days of heightened controls on the transfer of funds, given the fear of terrorist financing, descriptions are important , even for very small sums. In this case where that large amount of money was being transferred to an individual the description becomes even more important.

Readers may also be interested in item 71A Details o Charges
"SHA" means charges are shared and it is again curious that such a generous donor would want the recipient to share in the charges for the transfer.
A PDF copy of the documents may be sighted at :
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2158723/1mdb-documents.pdf

END

Tinker tailor lawyer spy: Secrets of judicial officers spied on may be exploited by thief

by Ganesh Sahathevan

a

What the 1999 Annual Report of the German listed Beate Uhse AG has to do with the Legal Profession

Board NSW's lack of proper disclosure requiresexplanation; now read on.

The Communist Party China linked Zhenhua Data surveillance of Australians including in particular judicial officers concerns all Australians. Given their position any vulnerability that is exploited by the CPC can affect national security.

For that reason it is in the national interest that the judicial officers involved, including the judges, make full disclosure of any vulnerability.

This is not an unreasonable request; judges today have sought to insert themselves into public debates, and involve themselves in international affairs, in matters outside court.

The Chief Justice Of NSW Tom Bathurst, and the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, of which he is chairman, are good examples. Readers might recall that Mr Bathurst and his officers consider themselves players on the international stage:

LPAB foray into international politics, 1MDB and a HK IPO demand that the Chairman (the CJ NSW) signs off the accounts

Compounding matters is the NSW LPAB and it chairman's refusal to do what they are being paid to do ie to be regulator of the legal profession:

Legal Profession Admission Board Annual Report 2015-16 deficiency : Is the Member for Cronulla, the AG NSW, a victim of regulatory capture by NSW Liberal donor Top Group?

Mr Bathrust and his officers have even managed to insert themselves into regional South East Asian business and politics, insisting that this well known lawyer from a prominent Malaysian political family is in fact an employee of the College Of Law who was being harassed by this writer:

Australia's College Of Law abuses Kitingan name to promote masters course of little or no value

These are all matters that can be easily exploited by any intelligence agency, but even more the Chinese given the subject matter. Bathrust and his NSW LPAB officers are but one example, we are entitled to know what other matters there may be that have obviously interested China's spy masters.

TO BE READ WITH

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Tinker tailor lawyer spy: Details of Australian lawyers held at the NSW Law Society and NSW LPAB may be especially susceptible to Communist Party China surveillance ; Zhenhua Data spying adds to Top Group law school security concerns

by Ganesh Sahathevan

From left to right: Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis, Dr Minshen Zhu

Zhenhua Data's surveilling Australians on behalf of the Communist Party Of China (CPC)included lawyers:

Several prominent figures are among the 35,000 Australians discovered in the restored part of the leaked database, including state and federal politicians, military officers, diplomats, academics, civil servants, business executives, engineers, journalists, lawyers and accountants.

It is not hard to understand why the Chinese Communist Party would want to have files on lawyers. History tells us why:

In Singapore, the (China backed Communist Party Of Malaya)CPM clung on to their long-cherished goal of re-establishment of the Communist United Front of workers, students and intellectuals. 193 To that end, its subversive and recruitment efforts were widened to include distinctly bourgeois groups such as journalists, lawyers, marketing executives, ballet dancers and teachers. One such cell organised by lawyer G Raman aimed to: Force the government to release hardcore communist detainees in readiness for the general elections due 1976/77. The released detainees could then group and rebuild the Communist United Front to complement the armed struggle of the CPM. In part this was in association with Euro-communists, exerting pressure through the Socialist International

Lawyers deal in the confidences of many who are rich, powerful, and well connected. Trawling through lawyers files can provide high grade intelligence that can be deployed in any number of ways and for any number of purposes.

Equally important is trawling through the files about lawyers; being officers of the courts vested with legal professional privilege and in control of trust accounts (which are also covered by privilege), lawyers provide especially good cover for covert operations.

Consequently any database of lawyers is an asset that would be of interest to the CPC. The NSW Law Society and the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board possess such databases, and have in fact opened themselves to CPC penetration as a result of the NSW LPAB's dealings with the CPC linked Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Group.

Readers will recall that the NSW LPAB made an exception in issuing Zhu the first and only license to award law degrees in Australia that has been granted a private company that is not an university.

The NSW LPAB did so despite Zhu's political dealings, interference in Australian politics, and open defiance of AFP and ASIO directives. The NSW LPAB is chaired by the Chief Justice of NSW Tom Bathurst, who is ultimately responsible for the issuance of that license.

Together with the license comes the status, prestige and access to the NSW and Australian legal establishment.At a practical nuts and bolts level Zhu and his Top Group can have correspondence with the NSW LPAB that is confidential, if not privileged. There are in addition legislative powers that can be used to deny admission to practise for political and commercial reasons.

The correspondence is likely to be in electronic form ie emails and attachments, and these in turn can be utilised for penetration beyond the recipient. The tools for doing so can be readily obtained from iFlytek, which has been blacklisted by the US Government for providing the Chinese Government products that were used to monitor and police Uighurs. IFlytek has also had a longstanding collaboration with Huawei.

In simple popular terms the NSW LPAB under the supervision of its chairman, the Chief Justice Of NSW Tom Bathurst, has created a Tinker Tailor Soldier type conduit that can be tapped by the CPC whenever it wishes.

Complicating matters is the conduct of the NSW LPAB in a number of issues over the past two years, including one in which the NSW LPAB attempted to discredit investigation by journalists including this writer of the 1MDB theft. CPC companies were involved in an attempted cover-up of that theft.

TO BE READ WITH

China's iFlytek AI products used by "many Australian government agencies": Industrial scale CPC data hunting in Australia will not be limited to Zenhua Data

Saturday, September 19, 2020

Should local government be granted constitutional recognition ,when councillors rely on foreigners to get elected?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

In June 2019 Government News reported:

Australia’s councils have voted to demand a referendum giving local government constitutional recognition.

The motion, calling for the government to initiate a referendum “at the earliest opportunity”, was carried 201 votes to three at the National General Assembly of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) in Canberra on Monday.

“Local Government presently depends on the continued will of the various State legislatures to empower local government to exist and perform various functions,” the motion put forward by Toowoomba Regional Council states.

“It seems preferable that the Commonwealth entrench the right for councils to exist and perform certain roles.”

Left unsaid is the fact that at least some local councillors have begun to rely on foreigners, non-Australian citizens, to get themselves elected.

Constitutional recognition may well have the consequence of entrenching what seems to be a means of allowing foreigners an at least indirect say in state and Commonwealth governments.

As it stands it is unclear on what basis foreigners have been allowed to vote in local elections and even if it is legal for them to do so, whether Australian citizens have been made sufficiently aware of the practise so that they can decide if the right to vote ought to be extended to non-citizens.

TO BE READ WITH

Saturday, September 19, 2020

Melbourne City Councillor Philip Le Liu has encouraged foreign students from China to register as voters : Consequences for Melbourne City Council elections as well as state and Federal elections

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The above is from a website that has been taken down. Its contents have however been copied and translated by China analyst Geoff Wade. The translation of the Chinese characters above (which have been checked) says:

Melbourne Mayoral election is nearing: Can non-Australia citizens also vote? Melbourne City Councillor Philip Le Liu says that this is indeed a vote that foreign students can participate in. The precondition is that they register before a fixed date.

Liu's statement is interesting Voting in any election in Australia is restricted to citizens.

Liu is running in the coming Melbourne Council Elections, on an unofficial Liberal ticket.

The presence of Chinese foreign students on the electoral rolls will have consequences for the results of past local council, state and federal elections.

END

Melbourne City Councillor Philip Le Liu has encouraged foreign students from China to register as voters : Consequences for Melbourne City Council elections as well as state and Federal elections

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Liu's statement is interesting Voting in any election in Australia is restricted to citizens.

Liu is running in the coming Melbourne Council Elections, on an unofficial Liberal ticket.

The presence of Chinese foreign students on the electoral rolls will have consequences for the results of past local council, state and federal elections.

END

Friday, September 18, 2020

USDOJ prosecutes another Communist Party China hacking scheme targeting Australians: No action in Australia despite DOJ action, and an Australian connection to the hackers

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Wong Ong Hua & Vincent Tan. Tan has both corporate and private interests in Australia. Photo from Tan's Sun Daily,held via his Berjaya Media

The US Department Of Justice has uncovered yet another Chinese Communist Party linked hacking scheme, and prosecuted the parties involved who are from China and Malaysia. Their victims include persons in Australia.

The Malaysians include one Wong Ong Hua who is the CEO of a Malaysian company SEA Gamer Mall Sdn Bhd. The DOJ indictment states:

The second August 2020 indictment charged Wong Ong Hua, 46, and Ling Yang Ching, 32, both Malaysian nationals and residents, with 23 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, money laundering, violations of the CFAA, and falsely registering domain names. The indictment alleged that Wong and Ling conducted the affairs of Sea Gamer Mall, a Malaysian company founded by Wong, through a pattern of racketeering activity involving computer intrusion offenses targeting the video game industry in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea

Sea Gamer Mall's majority shareholder is Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, who own 51% of the company. Tan's Australian interests include Carlovers Carwash (in liquidation). The coincidence of Australian victims and an Australian link to the parties involved in yet another Communist Party Of China hacking scheme requires immediate investigation, but nothing seems to have been done.

TO BE READ WITH

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Seven International Cyber Defendants, Including “Apt41” Actors, Charged In Connection With Computer Intrusion Campaigns Against More Than 100 Victims Globally

Two Defendants Arrested in Malaysia; Remaining Five Defendants, One of Whom Allegedly Boasted of Connections to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, are Fugitives in China

In August 2019 and August 2020, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., returned two separate indictments charging five computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with computer intrusions affecting over 100 victim companies in the United States and abroad, including software development companies, computer hardware manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks, and foreign governments, as well as pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong.

The intrusions, which security researchers have tracked using the threat labels “APT41,” “Barium,” “Winnti,” “Wicked Panda,” and “Wicked Spider,” facilitated the theft of source code, software code signing certificates, customer account data, and valuable business information. These intrusions also facilitated the defendants’ other criminal schemes, including ransomware and “crypto-jacking” schemes, the latter of which refers to the group’s unauthorized use of victim computers to “mine” cryptocurrency.

Also in August 2020, the same federal grand jury returned a third indictment charging two Malaysian businessmen who conspired with two of the Chinese hackers to profit from computer intrusions targeting the video game industry in the United States and abroad. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued arrest warrants for the two businessmen. On Sept. 14, 2020, pursuant to a provisional arrest request from the United States with a view to their extradition, Malaysian authorities arrested them in Sitiawan. The department appreciates the significant cooperation and assistance provided by the Government of Malaysia, including the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia and the Royal Malaysia Police.

In addition to arrest warrants for all of the charged defendants, in September 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued seizure warrants that resulted in the recent seizure of hundreds of accounts, servers, domain names, and command-and-control (C2”) “dead drop” web pages used by the defendants to conduct their computer intrusion offenses. The FBI executed the warrants in coordination with other actions by several private-sector companies, which included disabling numerous accounts for violations of the companies’ terms of service. In addition, in partnership with the department, Microsoft developed and implemented technical measures to block this threat actor from accessing victims’ computer systems. The actions by Microsoft were a significant part of the overall effort to deny the defendants continued access to hacking infrastructure, tools, accounts, and command and control domain names. In coordination with today’s announcement, the FBI has also released a Liaison Alert System (FLASH) report that contains critical, relevant technical information collected by the FBI for use by specific private-sector partners.

“The department of Justice has used every tool available to disrupt the illegal computer intrusions and cyberattacks by these Chinese citizens,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “Regrettably, the Chinese communist party has chosen a different path of making China safe for cybercriminals so long as they attack computers outside China and steal intellectual property helpful to China.”

“Today’s charges, the related arrests, seizures of malware and other infrastructure used to conduct intrusions, and coordinated private sector protective actions reveal yet again the department’s determination to use all of the tools at its disposal and to collaborate with the private sector and nations who support the rule of law in cyberspace,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers. “This is the only way to neutralize malicious nation state cyber activity.”

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the ramifications faced by the hackers in China but it is also a reminder to those who continue to deploy malicious cyber tactics that we will utilize every tool we have to administer justice,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “The arrests in Malaysia are a direct result of partnership, cooperation and collaboration. As the cyber threat continues to evolve larger than any one agency can address, the FBI remains committed to being an indispensable partner to our federal, international and private sector partners to stop rampant cyber crime and hold those carrying out these kind of actions accountable.”

“The scope and sophistication of the crimes in these unsealed indictments is unprecedented. The alleged criminal scheme used actors in China and Malaysia to illegally hack, intrude and steal information from victims worldwide,” said Michael R. Sherwin, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “As set forth in the charging documents, some of these criminal actors believed their association with the PRC provided them free license to hack and steal across the globe. This scheme also contained a new and troubling cyber-criminal component – the targeting and utilization of gaming platforms to both defraud video game companies and launder illicit proceeds.”

“The actions announced today reflect a years-long commitment by the FBI Washington Field Office to pursue the perpetrators of the computer intrusion campaigns described in the indictments, and to bring those perpetrators to justice,” said Acting Assistant Director in Charge James A. Dawson, FBI Washington Field Office. “This case demonstrates the FBI’s dedication to pursuing these criminals no matter where they are, and to whom they may be connected.”

The August 2019 indictment charged Zhang Haoran (张浩然), 35, and Tan Dailin (谭戴林), 35, with 25 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). The indictment charged Zhang and Tan with participating in a “Computer Hacking Conspiracy,” which targeted high-technology and similar organizations. The indictment also charged that, as an additional way to make money, Zhang and Tan participated in a “Video Game Conspiracy,” through which Zhang and Tan, together with others, sought to make money by hacking video game companies, obtaining and otherwise generating digital items of value (e.g., video game currency), and then selling such items for profit. In several instances, they used their unauthorized access to gaming company networks take action against other unrelated groups engaged in the same fraudulent generation of gaming artifacts, thereby attempting to eliminate the criminal competition.

One of the August 2020, indictments charged Jiang Lizhi (蒋立志), 35, Qian Chuan (钱川), 39, and Fu Qiang (付强), 37, with nine counts of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to violate the CFAA, substantive violations of the CFAA, access device fraud, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. The racketeering conspiracy pertained to the three defendants’ conducting the affairs of Chengdu 404 Network Technology (“Chengdu 404”), a PRC company, through a pattern of racketeering activity involving computer intrusion offenses affecting over 100 victim companies, organizations, and individuals in the United States and around the world, including in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The defendants also compromised foreign government computer networks in India and Vietnam, and targeted, but did not compromise, government computer networks in the United Kingdom. In one notable instance, the defendants conducted a ransomware attack on the network of a non-profit organization dedicated to combating global poverty.

The defendants associated with Chengdu 404 employed sophisticated hacking techniques to gain and maintain access to victim computer networks. One example was the defendants’ use of “supply chain attacks,” in which the hackers compromised software providers and then modified the providers’ code to facilitate further intrusions against the software providers’ customers. Another example was the hackers’ use of C2 “dead drops,” which are seemingly legitimate web pages that the hackers created, but which were surreptitiously encoded instructions to their malware. However, they also employed publicly available exploits and tools, including the following common vulnerabilities and exposures (“CVE”): CVE-2019-19781, CVE-2019-11510, CVE-2019-16920, CVE-2019-16278, CVE-2019-1652/CVE-2019-1653, and CVE-2020-10189.

The indictment against Zhang and Tan charges the defendants with two counts of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; five counts of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; nine counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; four counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; two counts of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison; and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The indictment against Jiang, Qian, and Fu charges the defendants with one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of threatening to damage a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of access device fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of identity theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison; and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The indictment against Wong and Ling charges the defendants with one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; five counts of furthering fraud by unauthorized access to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; two counts of access device fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; two counts of identity theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison; and three counts of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The indictment also alleges false registration of domain names, which would increase the maximum sentence of imprisonment for money laundering to 27 years; the maximum sentence of imprisonment for unlawful access to a protected computer to 10 years instead of five years; the maximum sentence of imprisonment for intentional damage to a protected computer to 17 years instead of 10 years; and the mandatory sentence of imprisonment for aggravated identity theft to four years instead of two years.

The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only; any sentencing's of the defendants will be determined by the assigned judge.

The investigation was conducted jointly by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The FBI’s Cyber Division assisted in the investigation and, along with FBI’s Cyber Assistant Legal Attachés and Legal Attachés in countries around the world, provided essential support. Numerous victims cooperated and provided valuable assistance in the investigation.

The department is also grateful to Microsoft, including Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), to Google, including its Threat Analysis Group (TAG), to Facebook, and to Verizon Media, including its Paranoids Advanced Cyber Threats Team, for the assistance they provided in this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Demian Ahn of the District of Columbia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal Chawla of the District of Columbia, and Trial Attorney Evan Turgeon of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting this case.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided critical assistance.

The details contained in the charging document are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Attachment(s):

Download C404 Indictment

Download Wong Indictment Redacted

Download ZHR Indictment Redacted.pdf

Component(s):

Office of the Deputy Attorney General

Press Release Number:

20-942

Updated September 16, 2020

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Tinker tailor lawyer spy: Details of Australian lawyers held at the NSW Law Society and NSW LPAB may be especially susceptible to Communist Party China surveillance ; Zenhua Data spying adds to Top Group law school security concerns

by Ganesh Sahathevan

From left to right: Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis, Dr Minshen Zhu

Zhenhua Data's surveilling Australians on behalf of the Communist Party Of China (CPC)included lawyers:

It is not hard to understand why the Chinese Communist Party would want to have files on lawyers. History tells us why:

Readers will recall that the NSW LPAB made an exception in issuing Zhu the first and only license to award law degrees in Australia that has been granted a private company that is not an university.

TO BE READ WITH