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After nearly a week of silence, former Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak responded to the complaint from Edge Media Group's Chairman, Tong Kooi Ong, who has long been aware of wrongdoing involving 1MDB.
While not dismissing Tong's claim that the latter would have come to him in 2015 with papers alleging that the fugitive businessman, Jho Low, was scamming money from sovereign fund, Najib claimed that he doubted the "evidence".
"All documents presented by Tong as" evidence "at the time were based on emails from PetroSaudi (an oil company based in Saudi Arabia) stolen by a disgruntled employee who then blackmailed his friend and his employers during years.
"They also claimed that the documents had been changed and the employee was subsequently found guilty of blackmail in Thailand," he wrote on Facebook today.
Najib was referring to documents disclosed by Xavier Justo, a former PetroSaudi International executive, about the company's joint venture with 1MDB, which had been published by Malaysian and international media, including among them. The edge, which formed the basis of money laundering investigations into the fund.
Justo (Photo) was sentenced in 2015 to three years' imprisonment for attempting to blackmail and extort PetroSaudi, but was released 18 months after being cleared royal amnesty by the King of Thailand Maha Vajiralongkorn.
In his tell all editorialTong claimed to have met Najib at his personal residence on March 6, 2015, and to talk to the Prime Minister at the time. "evidence"This 1MDB was a scam, only to be kicked out of the house.
The evidence, said Tong, was based on information obtained from Justo.
Tong had said: "After about half an hour, he (Najib) gave in and announced that he would close 1MDB.He did not say what he was going to do to about debts.
"Then I started to tell Najib that Jho Low was to be held responsible and should be sued." It annoyed him, he stood up immediately, walked to the door and asked me to leave.
"I was surprised that he was so sensitive about Low."
Tong's claims came after Najib reiterated his initial ignorance about any embezzlement involving 1MDB and Low's involvement in the wrongdoing of the time.
In his article published today on Facebook, Najib explained that at the time, the Malaysian government of the time had also interviewed PetroSaudi to determine whether the allegations of his participation in the Alleged scam were true.
The company denied that, he said.
He added that neither the audit firm, the world's fourth-largest nor the legal services firm engaged by 1MDB, had raised any fear of any duplicity in the transactions and relationships of the company. funds with these companies.
This involved a subsequent payment by PetroSaudi and profits in the form of fund units, allegedly guaranteed by Aabar Corporation and held by the Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic).
After meeting with Tong, he said that the fund's units had been converted into a US $ 3.5 billion bond issue guaranteed by Ipic, adding that there was no evidence yet that the amount paid by 1MDB was fraudulent.
"Yes, today, Tong may be right, but in March 2015, it was his words that relied on the assertions of an unhappy staff, compared to what was explained by the governor of Riyadh and the Saudi Arabian prince (Turki Abdullah)., international auditors and the highest management of Aabar.
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