The Thursday charges against Najib were meant to frighten UMNO MPs

September 22, 2018 Raggie Jessy

Dr Mahathir Mohamad is desperate to get as many UMNO Members of Parliament (MPs) to join PPBM and is creating the perception that Najib is guilty.

He is bent on establishing a new coalition government with a two-thirds majority by November 2018 and wants UMNO MPs to abandon Najib ASAP.

By getting the police and the MACC to exert pressure on Najib and UMNO, he wants the MPs to ditch the party by having them believe that they would be targeted if they do not join PPBM in the nearest time possible.

He is also pissed that Najib published evidence related to the RM2.6 billion that ended in his Ambank account and is worried that the evidence would derail his “new coalition government” plans.

THE THIRD FORCE

On Thursday, the 20^th of September 2018, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of laundering funds and four counts of power abuse related to the RM2.6 billion that ended in his Ambank account. The charges brought the total number read to the former premier by the Kuala Lumpur courts to 32 in a span of just four months since Pakatan Harapan took over government. Thursday’s charges were reported by the world media as being related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) despite the RM2.6 billion being anything but money that originated from the wealth fund.

So the charges had nothing to do with 1MDB?

No. Not directly.

But I’ll address that in an upcoming article.

Suffice to say, Najib was charged with nine counts of receiving a total of RM2.08 billion from a company known as Tanore Finance Corporation prior to the 13^th general election (GE13). He was also charged with a further six counts for using RM35.05 million to pay UMNO and several other entities and individuals, apart from transferring a portion of that sum to another Maybank account belonging to him. The remaining six charges had to do with the act of returning RM2.1837 billion to Tanore, which, if you haven’t already noticed, is more than the amount he was alleged to have received from the company.

Here itself, you can see that the charges were not directly related to 1MDB.

How is that laundering?

Precisely!

Money laundering pertains to “the concealment of the origins of illegally obtained money, typically by means of transfers involving foreign banks or legitimate businesses.” Everybody knows where the money came from and how it got into Najib’s account. The MACC confirmed in 2016 that the RM2.6 billion that ended in the former premier’s Ambank account had originated from Saudi Arabia and was a private donation by the Saudi Royals. Even the current head of the MACC, Dato’ Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull, entered in a 2015 investigation paper he himself prepared that the money was from none other than the late King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

Is there proof of this?

Yes.

On the 4^th of June 2018, almost a month after the 14^th general election, The Third Force undertook to publish excerpts of the investigation paper Shukri prepared in 2015. Known as the “Kertas Siasatan Terhadap Najib Razak (KSNR)”, the paper featured a letter by Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia who, in no uncertain terms, stated that the fund was a gift from him that was to be used by Najib at his discretion to “promote Islam so it continues to flourish.”

Letter by Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud

Six days later, The Third Force made public more excerpts from the same investigation paper revealing that both Ambank officials and the then Governor of Bank Negara, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, knew the identities of the RM2.6 billion donors. As a matter of fact, the excerpts proved that Zeti herself gave the “go ahead” for the money to be transferred and suggested that the money be channelled into Najib’s personal account.

 

Excerpts of the “Kertas Siasatan Terhadap Najib Razak”

This helps clarify what the fuss about Tanore Finance Corporation is all about

Finally, on the 10^th of September 2018, Najib himself posted in his Facebook account a copy of Prince Saud’s letter and furnished several Swift documents related to the aforementioned transactions. The documents were consistent with information contained in the KSNR and proved beyond any measure of doubt that the entries Shukri made in 2015 were factual insofar as details of the said transactions went.

So why was Najib charged?

It’s a game of perception.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad is desperate to get as many UMNO Members of Parliament (MPs) to join PPBM and is creating the perception that Najib is guilty. He is bent on establishing a new coalition government with a two-thirds majority in Parliament and wants UMNO MPs to abandon ship ASAP. By getting the police and the MACC to exert pressure on Najib and UMNO, he wants the MPs to ditch the party by having them believe that they would be targeted by him if they do not join PPBM in the nearest time possible.

Is that the only reason?

No.

Mahathir is also upset that Najib has been vocal and forward with rebuttals against him. He got pissed when the former premier published evidence related to the RM2.6 billion and worried that it would derail his “new coalition government” plans. He decided to push for Najib’s arrest on fabricated charges despite the MACC having yet to complete its investigations into 1MDB. Just to create perception that Najib is a pukka criminal, he got the anti-graft agency to slap as many charges as possible on the former premier based on the number of transactions that took place and (or) cheques that were issued.

If the money is not from 1MDB, why are they saying it is?

Pakatan Harapan won the 14^th general election (GE14) on the promise that Najib would be jailed for robbing 1MDB of its worth. Its leaders alleged that the RM2.6 billion had originated from the wealth fund and that the money belonged to Malaysian taxpayers. When they finally were able to form government, they found that the RM2.6 billion had actually originated from Saudi Arabia and quickly decided to trump up charges against Najib. They dared not touch the RM2.6 billion issue for fear that a conspiracy between Zeti, Shukri and Tommy Thomas would blow wide into the open for all and sundry to see.

Conspiracy between Zeti, Shukri and Tommy Thomas?

Yes.

And this has something to do with a Statutory Declaration I made recently, the release of which had to be deferred yet again, for the third time.

But we’ll leave that for the upcoming article.

To be continued…