This is part three in the series titled
Clare Rewcastle Brown’s ‘heist of the century’. In this third and final part we
will reveal how Husni and Muhyiddin knew back in 2013 that 1MDB was going to be
sabotaged. However, instead of warning Najib about it, Muhyiddin approached
Mahathir to discuss how they could help ensure that the sabotage is successful
and use this to bring Najib down and at the same time walk away with a large
sum of money.
The Third Force
For the past year or so, the name Aabar
Investments PJS Limited has been making headlines the world over, a company
registered in the BVI and the reason IPIC had a falling out with 1MDB.
Currently, the two factions appear locked in dispute over the status of the
company, which officials from IPIC insist isn’t one of theirs.
The Malaysian Ministry of Finance (MoF)
found this difficult to believe, considering that the BVI registered entity
(Aabar-BVI) had officials from IPIC listed as stakeholders. That, and the fact
that the MoF has in its possession agreements negotiated through Qubaisi in his
capacity as the chair of an Abu Dhabi entity bearing a name similar to that of
the BVI company.
The MoF insists that Aabar-BVI is a
subsidiary of IPIC. What the MoF did now know is someone from the ministry
conspired to withhold information that had the potential of averting a dispute
currently being arbitrated in a London court. And that person is none other
than the former Second Minister of Finance, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni bin Mohamad
Hanadzlah.
Husni came to know early in 2013 what
the CEO of 1MDB, Dato’ Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, had known since December
2012. The former minister discovered that the BVI registered Aabar was in fact
a vehicle through which Qubaisi robbed the Malaysian fund. It was brought to
his attention that a mismatch existed in 1MDB’s dealings with IPIC. Yet, Husni
deviously chose to remain silent and instead played innocent by questioning the
government’s motives for setting up the wealth fund.
Should authorities conduct a thorough
background check on Husni, they will discover communications proving the former
minister’s knowledge of a scheme to sabotage 1MDB. While my team has yet to
complete a discovery on Shahrol, it is clear to us that Husni had known of the
scheme since January 2013.
The Chief Editor of Sarawak Report,
Clare Rewcastle Brown, implicated Najib in a complicity to rob 1MBD. But there
is a lot she kept hidden from us. For instance, she failed to mention the
reason she finds it absolutely necessary that Qubaisi and Najib be found guilty
of fraud and acts of criminal malfeasance.
And that’s what we’re here to discover.
Through this article, the final in a three-part series, we will find out if
funds from 1MDB were indeed stolen, and if so, who benefited most from the
theft. Most importantly, we will figure out – for the first time ever – how Ms.
Rewcastle stands to benefit should the London International Court of
Arbitration find 1MDB in default of its obligations to IPIC.
Suspect #1 and 2: Husni and Qubaisi
The first person that will benefit from
the spiriting of 1MDB’s money through the BVI is Husni. The second is Qubaisi,
who may have accumulated material wealth worth approximately USD600 million, a
large portion of which was converted into fixed assets in the US.
A month after 1MDB sealed a
multi-billion-dollar joint-venture agreement with China’s SGCC (refer preceding
article), Qubaisi began establishing a network of entities in the BVI that grew
in numbers with each passing month. By 2014, there were at least five entities
bearing the name Aabar, two of which were struck off on the 1st of May that
year pursuant to Section 2013(1)(c) of the BVI Business Companies Act (2004).
The companies had defaulted in payment of annual fees and fines imposed for
various offences.
A check by my team revealed that these
entities – Aabar Resources (Global) Limited (Aabar Global) and Aabar Strategic
Investments Limited (Aabar Strategic) – along with several others had
facilitated transfers worth billions for IPIC despite them being unrelated to
the Abu Dhabi fund. A further check revealed that the money ended up being
spirited through the US financial system before being converted into fixed
assets.
As we dug deeper, we discovered that a
sizable portion of money that was channeled through Qubaisi’s BVI network in
2013 had originated from 1MDB. It appears that a former minister is at this
very moment the beneficial owner of a property unit in the US worth
approximately USD5 million, purchased using wealth Qubaisi generated by moving
that money around the BVI and, thereafter, the US.
This ex-minister is said to have
questioned the government on the 24th of October 2016 for its failure “to act
on the management of 1MDB for investing money in the wrong places.” The only
person who fits the description is Husni, the former Second Minister of
Finance, who posed that very question on that very day when debating the 2017
Supply Bill in Parliament. It seems that Husni had been paid to keep his mouth
shut.
Suspect # 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7: Jürgen
Mossack, Soros, Mansour, Marcus and Tony Blair
The man who taught Qubaisi everything
there was to know about tax havens and money laundering was Jürgen Mossack.
Throughout the year 2013, Mossack helped Qubaisi channel wealth from the BVI
through many of Soros’ offshore interests to generate surpluses. Most of that
surplus was shared between Mossack, Qubaisi, Mansour and Soros despite that
wealth belonging either to the government of Abu Dhabi or to sovereign wealth
funds.
Mossack, a tax scam expert, is the son
of Erhard Mossack, a Nazi SS officer from a unit once known as the ‘Death’s
Head division’. In 1977, Mossack founded a controversial law firm – the Mossack
Fonseca & Co – and taught Soros everything there was to know about ways to
evade tax authorities. Early in February 2010, Massack began imparting that
knowledge to Qubaisi and taught the former IPIC Managing Director ways to con
world governments.
The first thing Mossack told Qubaisi to
do was to coax Amanda Staveley into transferring the ownership of PGI3 to Nexus
Capital Investing Limited, a BVI concern wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi
International United Investments LLC, or ADIUI. To recap, PGI3 was a BVI
registered vehicle through which Ms. Staveley secured 758,437,618 shares from
Barclays in 2009 (refer preceding article).
ADIUI, in turn, was 100 percent owned by
Mansour, meaning, the IPIC chair had gained full control of those shares.
Mossack needed the ownership transferred to Mansour as relations between Ms.
Staveley and IPIC had gone to pot. As Qubaisi understood it, Mansour was to
dispose of those shares and channel proceeds through his BVI network.
However, just as Mansour was about to do
that, word got out that Mohammed, Mansour’s brother, was in discussions with
certain Abu Dhabi officials on the possibility of establishing partnerships
with 1MDB. It is not known if the Malaysian government was in touch with
Mohammed at this point. Nonetheless, Mansour made many attempts to dissuade his
brother, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, from diving into a deal with the
Malaysian government. But Mohammed stood his ground.
As a result, Mansour decided to hold on
to his seven-odd percent in Barclays just yet. The thing that Mansour feared
most was that his brother would get him to dump proceeds from the sale of those
shares into 1MDB, the same way the Crown Prince got him to pledge billions to
Barclays in 2008. Mansour went on to caution Blair that his brother was dead
serious about forging an alliance with the Malaysian fund.
On the 18th of October 2010, Blair’s
biggest fear came to life when Mubadala signed two collaborative agreements
centered on energy and infrastructural development worth up to USD7 billion
with 1MDB through two of its subsidiaries, Mubadala Real Estate &
Hospitality (MREH) and Mubadala Industry (MI).
The announcement triggered some back and
forth communication between Qubaisi, Mossack and a group of Emirati businessmen
linked to Blair and Marcus. The group discussed ways to ‘fracture’ Mohammed’s
ties with Malaysia and decided that the best way forward was to reduce 1MDB to
insolvency. An interesting point to note is that the group spoke of ways to
generate wealth using funds from 1MDB. The Emirati faction conceded to wait for
a time that was most opportune to strike.
That opportunity came on the 7th of
March 2012 when 1MDB announced plans to acquire Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd
for USD2.81 billion from the person who controlled it, Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan.
Suspect #8: Unknown official from
Ministry of Finance
1MDB’s purchase of Tanjong afforded the
Malaysian fund a total net generating capacity of 3,951MW through control of
the unit’s eight power plants. Months later, on the 14th of August 2012, 1MDB
made public a decision to extend that capacity through the purchase of the
Genting Group’s 97.7 percent stake in a power and utility unit, Mastika Lagenda
Sdn Bhd.
The USD738.01 purchase gave the
Malaysian fund control of Mastika’s 75 percent in power generator Genting
Sanyen Power and all of Mastika’s holdings in Mastika Utilities & Services
and Mastika Water Management. To raise capital needed for the purchases, 1MDB
issued two bonds worth USD1.75 billion each through two of its subsidiaries,
1MDB Energy Limited and 1MDB Energy (Langat) Limited
Qubaisi wasted very little time in
getting IPIC to guarantee all obligations (principal and associated interests)
related to those bonds. But the guarantee came with a very steep price. Under
the terms of an agreement sealed between the two funds, 1MDB was to park a
security deposit worth USD1.4 billion with IPIC, which Shahrol later authorized
to Aabar-BVI.
Shahrol came to know in December 2012
that Qubaisi planned to squeeze 1MDB for cash. He understood why IPIC had made
such exorbitant demands, including stock options that gave IPIC and all its
subsidiaries the right to acquire up to a 49 percent stake in 1MDB Energy Sdn
Bhd, a subsidiary company of the Malaysian fund (since renamed Powertek
Investment Holding Sdn Bhd, or PIHSB).
But Shahrol made no mention of this to
Najib or the bulk of the fund’s board members. While my team is still in the
midst of a discovery into Shahrol’s dealings with the Mideast, it appears that
the former CEO of 1MDB may have struck a deal of sorts with Qubaisi some time
in December 2012 itself.
Qubaisi’s interest in PIHSB stemmed from
the firm’s 100 percent holding in Krishnan’s Tanjong unit (since renamed
Powertek energy Sdn Bhd, or PESB). Months later, Qubaisi came to know of a USD
1.9 billion syndicated bridging loan that 1MDB secured through a consortium of
borrowers led by the Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank).
Now, all this would have been fine if we
assume that officials from 1MDB had informed Qubaisi of the bridging loan.
However, Qubaisi had in his possession confidential information pertaining
transactions 1MDB had performed since 2009, including summary notes of
negotiations that took place between the Malaysian fund and Maybank officials
in 2012.
So how did he get hold of all that
information?
Well, prior to negotiations that took
place between 1MDB and IPIC, Blair had already been tipped off by officials
from PetroSaudi of dealings that had gone on between the Malaysian fund and the
Saudis. The information related to a USD2.5 billion partnership PetroSaudi had
entered with 1MDB on the 30th of September 2009. Basically, Blair needed to
know if there were people in 1MDB that his team could use.
The former British premier was given
access to such information due to a £41,000 a month advisory role he secretly
negotiated with PetroSaudi back in November 2010. Apart from the two percent
commission that came with every deal he helped broker with the Chinese, Blair
was promised access to confidential information that pertained the Saudi firm
and its dealings with foreign wealth funds.
But that is not all. Blair found himself
in a unique position owing to another advisory position he held. On the 1st of
January 2008, Blair was made the advisor of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JP), the
largest financial institution in the US by net asset worth. Blair negotiated
the role through Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chairman and CEO, who offered the
former British premier an annual salary of £2 million without the need for him
to enter office.
Through an executive linked to Michael
Cavanagh, Dimon’s deputy, Blair was fed top secret information that pertained
1MDB and its dealings with PetroSaudi. As if that wasn’t peculiar enough, the
same executive seemed to be in possession of details pertaining the USD1.9
billion syndicated bridging loan that 1MDB secured in 2012 to part finance the
purchase of Krishnan’s power holdings. Those details were handed over to Blair
in April 2013.
Upon investigation, my team traced the
leak of information to an individual subordinate to the current CEO of the
Maybank Kim Eng Group (MKEG), Dato’ John Chong. Back in March 2013 when the
leak took place, the 13th Malaysian general election was slated to be around
the corner. Chong was yet the CEO of Maybank Investment Bank Berhad and was a
year away from becoming MKEG’s acting head.
The Maybank official fed Cavanagh’s
associate everything that needed to be known about the syndicated loan and a
lot more. Blair went on to channel that information to Qubaisi, who in turn,
passed it over to a group of Emirati businessmen. With the wealth of
information, Qubaisi was able to plan his moves very carefully, knowing well in
advance that 1MDB was positioned precariously and would crumble if it defaulted
any of its loans.
It appears that the Maybank official was
receiving instructions from someone in the Ministry of Finance. Judging from
the information leak, it seems that a group of Malaysian bankers were already
involved in a conspiracy to sabotage 1MDB even before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
got involved.
And yes, there was talk of a ‘reward’ in
the event 1MDB was reduced to insolvency.
Suspect #9: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
In July 2013 or some time thereabouts,
the Maybank official commenced a series of communications with another official
from Bank Negara, possibly the same person Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) referred
to in his 13th of August 2016 posting in Malaysia Today (refer link below).
These officials, who went by various pseudonyms, received instructions from
someone who appeared to be a top executive in CIMB who was specific with
instructions to prevent 1MDB from “reducing its debt to equity ratio”.
A month later, a series of
multi-channeled communications commenced between officials from Bank Negara,
Maybank, CIMB, AmBank, Bank Muamalat, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the
Securities Commission, all of whom went by very peculiar pseudonyms and spoke
in very peculiar terms. The back and forth related to plans by Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yassin to deprive 1MDB of oxygen and to depict the fund’s Board of
Directors as being fraudsters who helped Najib siphon money belonging to
Malaysians.
Prior to the back and forth between
these officials, Muhyiddin became the first Malaysian politician to be
approached by a representative from Blair’s camp, who met the then deputy
premier’s aide in June 2013 and told him that an international conspiracy to
sabotage 1MDB had begun. The representative gave Muhyiddin’s aide a peek into
“evidence of 1MDB’s precarious position” that Blair’s camp had obtained from
PetroSaudi, JP and Maybank.
The representative, who seemed to know
that Mahathir had planned to wage a vendetta against Najib, told the aide that
the clock was ticking, that both Soros and Blair were willing to help destroy
Najib if Mahathir or his people reciprocated with top secret information from
Bank Negara and the Malaysian Securities Commission.
A very excited Muhyiddin immediately
approached Mahathir and conveyed with optimism that 1MDB was about to be
sabotaged. Mahathir liked what he heard and gave Muhyiddin the go-ahead to
assemble a team to assist Blair and Soros. Secretly, though, the former premier
decided to wait and see what Blair and Soros had in mind before making his
move.
But unbeknown to Mahathir, Muhyiddin was
offered a cut amounting some USD30 million in the event the former deputy
premier could convince the Malaysian authorities that Najib was responsible for
dissipating billions from 1MDB into thin air. The broad idea was for Muhyiddin
to keep the spotlight pointed away from Qubaisi and his team while they worked
to bankrupt the Malaysian fund.
That explains why the former deputy
premier still sticks around Mahathir despite knowing that he has a cat in
hell’s chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. To leverage his
position, Muhyiddin roped Tony Pua into the conspiracy by telling the DAP
parliamentarian that 1MDB was about to be sabotaged by a group of foreigners.
Suspect #10: Clare Rewcastle Brown
Not many are aware that 1MDB first
decided to list its power assets in 2012, days after the fund purchased
Genting’s Mastika units. On the 17th of August 2012, someone with knowledge of
the matter confirmed that the fund had planned to raise as much as USD2 billion
in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to help lessen its debt load.
The plan was for the IPO to be made
before the 13th general election. Instead, 1MDB issued bonds worth USD3 billion
which Goldman Sachs then underwrote and sold at prices above the preset
minimum. Word of the bond deal was communicated to Blair by a man named Jackson
Eisenpresser, who fed the former British premier the A-Z pertaining the deal.
Late in 2013, Eisenpresser told Blair that the IPO had been deferred to a date
yet to be fixed by Najib and his men.
In RPK’s 13th of August 2016 posting, he
spoke of a conspiracy by Mahathir and his team to sabotage the IPO (refer link
below). According to the blogger, persons linked to Mahathir and a former
Malaysian Minister of Finance, Tun Daim Zainuddin, approached senior members of
1MDB’s management to act as moles within 1MDB with the sated aim of sabotaging
the impending IPO.
While my team concurs that RPK made
absolute sense, a similar conspiracy had already been contrived by members of
Blair’s team in March 2014. Per plans, Mansour was to have come out on the 15th
of August 2014 to announce that 1MDB had yet to fulfill part of its obligations
to IPIC pursuant to agreements that existed between the two funds.
A coincidence?
Our investigations revealed that Mansour
had planned to publically dissociate IPIC from Aabar-BVI by ‘pointing out’ to
Najib that 1MDB officials had made a grave error in judgment. The date for the
announcement was deemed appropriate by Mansour and Qubaisi to afford the latter
time to divest his holdings and that of his associates in all his BVI concerns.
Qubaisi was in the midst of negotiating the sale of some assets in the US,
including one or two units the US Department of Justice spoke of in its 20th of
July 2016 press conference.
But something unexpected happened.
Qubaisi became upset that Mansour was
taking so long to remit some payments due to him. The payments related to
Mansour’s seven-odd percent in Barclays (refer preceding article) that Qubaisi
once held a beneficial interest in. On the 19th of July 2013, Mansour shocked
everyone when he disposed of those shares, the existence of which was not known
even to his advisors.
Following the sale, a misunderstanding
erupted between Mansour and Qubaisi. The latter demanded a slice of profits
since it was he who once held those shares in trust for Mansour. After some
back and forth, Mansour agreed to channel ten percent of the profits to
Qubaisi. But the ten percent never came.
On the 30th of July 2014, Qubaisi drew
the line. He told Mansour that he had no intention of returning IPIC’s interests
– worth some USD20 billion in various asset categories – that Qubaisi and his
associates were the beneficial owners of. A very shaken Mansour immediately got
in touch with an associate of his and related what had just happened.
When the associate heard what he heard,
all hell broke loose. He insisted that Qubaisi be relieved of his positions in
IPIC. But Mansour was reluctant to do so as both he and Qubaisi had jointly
participated in the issue of some instruments. On the 10th of August 2014, a
decision was reached – Mansour would delay the planned 15th of August 2014
announcement while he sorted things out.
By then, Clare Rewcastle Brown had
already been approached by persons from Blair’s camp to participate in a
conspiracy to sabotage 1MDB (refer details in parts four, five and six). Owing
to developments in Abu Dhabi, Ms. Rewcastle was told to put the spotlight on
Jho Low while they figured out what to do with Qubaisi. On the 28th of February
2015, Ms. Rewcastle published Heist of the Century and zeroed in on Jho’s
alleged relationship with Najib and his family.
When a July 2015 coup attempt against
Najib fell flat on its face, plans changed. Ms. Rewcastle was told to shift the
spotlight on Qubaisi by accusing the former IPIC Managing Director of
conspiring with 1MDB officials to rob wealth that belonged to the people of
Malaysia. She did just that through a 26th of September 2015 article titled
King Khadem and his sovereign wealth.
According to my sources, the Sarawak
Report Chief Editor was promised a multi-million dollar reward in the event
1MDB loses its case in the London Court of International Arbitration. The case
revolves around the status of the BVI registered Aabar which 1MDB insists was a
subsidiary of IPIC.
If 1MDB loses the case, the fund would
officially be in default of its obligations pursuant to agreements it entered
with IPIC. In all likelihood, 1MDB would have to remit a yet-to-be-determined
sum of money to the Abu Dhabi fund, which is sure to range in the billions.
Unbeknown to the Malaysian government,
the arbitration was Blair’s idea and a way of killing two birds with one stone
– to get paid a commission from Mansour commensurate to the portion of money
Qubaisi owed him and to saddle the Malaysian fund with more debt.
As for Mansour, a victory would pave the
way for him to trigger action pursuant to law against Qubaisi, on grounds that
the former IPIC Managing Director had used the same modus operandi to siphon wealth
from the Abu Dhabi fund.
And Ms. Rewcastle?
Well, a verdict against 1MDB would help
her ‘prove’ that Najib had known all along the BVI registered Aabar was a bogus
entity. Or so she would claim, raising suspicion among Malaysians that Najib
had conspired with Qubaisi to rob the fund of its wealth. In Malaysia, what
matters most is the ink of perception, which Ms. Rewcastle knows all too well
is most difficult to erase.
And it is that ink that will earn her
more millions through Dr. Mahathir Mohammad.
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