Stage three of Mahathir’s DoJ attacks
They struck pay dirt when they managed to penetrate the United States Department of Justice, or DoJ, through the Clinton Campaign. In the US, political bribes, or what is called lobbying fees, is legal and Mahathir allocated US$5.01 million, the equivalent of RM20 million, for the Clinton Campaign — mainly to make sure that the US DoJ comes out with three press conferences and media statements regarding 1MDB.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Three years ago, back in March 2015, Malaysia Today revealed that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) were targeting to bring down Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak within three or four months, meaning by June or July 2015.
The target date to oust Najib was 29th July 2015 during the Cabinet meeting where Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin would tell Najib to resign and hand over power or else face arrest followed by jail. However, over the two days before 29th July 2015, Najib’s Boffin Boys launched a coup de grâce that totally demolished Mahathir’s and the ANC’s coup d’état.
Mahathir tried again twice that same year: the October 2015 vote-of-no-confidence in Parliament and the December 2015 vote-of-no-confidence at the Umno annual assembly. Both failed miserably and Mahathir celebrated the New Year downtrodden and totally decimated.
You would have thought at that point Mahathir would have realised he had lost the game (because, as they say in the US, ‘three strikes and you’re out’). Mahathir, however, refused to give up and over the Christmas-New Year holidays he called for a strategy meeting.
Syed Akbar (above) and Kadir Jasin handle Mahathir’s media and internet campaign
That strategy meeting was attended by the likes of Tun Daim Zainuddin, Sanusi Junid, Kadir Jasin, Matthias Chang, Syed Akbar Ali, Khairuddin Abu Hassan, Muhyiddin Yassin, Mukhriz Mahathir, Shafie Apdal, plus his Malay, Chinese and Indian billionaire cronies, proxies, nominees and trustees, but mainly Chinese — some who you can probably already suspect who they are.
It was decided that the media campaign had to be intensified both locally and internationally and bloggers plus journalists would need to be bought off. Friends in high places and those who walk in the corridors of power in the US, UK and Australia would have to be greased with generous political donations and election funding.
A war-chest of RM5 billion was agreed upon and the cost would be shared out and borne by ten tycoons, Mahathir himself and Daim being amongst those ten — and RM5 billion can buy a lot of ‘friends’ in the media and foreign governments. Guess who the other eight tycoons are and no prize for the right guess.
Matthias and Khairuddin were sent to travel the world to lodge complaints regarding 1MDB in a few countries
Matthias Chang and Khairuddin were put in charge of traveling all over the world to meet foreign governments and various authorities to lodge complaints and reports about 1MDB’s money being ‘stolen’ while Kadir Jasin and Syed Akbar Ali were to handle the media and blogging part of the business. Daim would handle the ‘donations’ to foreign parties.
They struck pay dirt when they managed to penetrate the United States Department of Justice, or DoJ, through the Clinton Campaign. In the US, political bribes, or what is called lobbying fees, is legal and Mahathir allocated US$5.01 million, the equivalent of RM20 million, for the Clinton Campaign — mainly to make sure that the US DoJ comes out with three press conferences and media statements regarding 1MDB.
It is important that they create the impression that the US is investigating and is taking action to recover the ‘stolen’ 1MDB money. If it comes from the US, in particular from the US DoJ, very few people would doubt it.
On 20th July 2016, the US DoJ held the first of three press conferences and issued a media release titled ‘U.S. Seeks to Recover More Than $1 Billion Obtained from Corruption Involving Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund’.
On 15th June 2017, the second press conference was held with the media release titled ‘U.S. Seeks to Recover Approximately $540 Million Obtained From Corruption Involving Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund’.
The third press conference (with the media release) was supposed to be held around March-April 2018, just before GE14 expected around April-May 2018.
Daim channelled US$5.01 million to the Clinton Campaign for purposes of influence-buying
Unfortunately, due to the changes in the US DoJ, the third press conference and media release planned for around this time is no longer possible. So, yesterday, they got Bloomberg to come out with a news report that said, amongst others:
The producer of the “Wolf of Wall Street” agreed to pay $60 million to settle claims it financed the movie with money siphoned from a Malaysian state investment fund. The settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and Red Granite Pictures Inc., which was co-founded by a stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, also covers U.S. forfeiture claims against the producer’s rights and interests in two other pictures, “Daddy’s Home” and “Dumb and Dumber To.”
The complaint targeting the 2013 picture, directed by Martin Scorsese, is among more than two dozen forfeiture lawsuits filed by the U.S. against $1.7 billion assets that were allegedly acquired with money stolen from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. The assets include mansions in Beverly Hills, California, luxury condos in New York, jewelry and artworks. The Justice Department sought the profits, royalties and distribution proceeds that are owed to Red Granite Pictures. The movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio took in $392 million in worldwide ticket sales, according to the website Box Office Mojo.
Riza Aziz, Najib’s stepson, is a friend of Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, the Malaysian financier whom the U.S. alleges orchestrated the scheme to loot $4.5 billion from the Malaysian fund going back to 2009. Of the allegedly stolen money, $1.7 billion has been traced to assets in the U.S. and U.K. Most of the civil forfeiture cases have been put on hold while the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation.
Basically, this ‘news’ is rehashed from 2015 but what is important is that it mentions, 1MDB, Jho Low, Najib Razak, Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz, and the U.S. Justice Department. That is all Mahathir wants Malaysians to read.
What most Malaysians will probably not notice is the part that says ‘Most of the civil forfeiture cases have been put on hold while the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation’ and that the DoJ is acting based on complaints (in this case from Matthias and Khairuddin).
After three years the DoJ still cannot produce the smoking gun
In other words, for the last three years, they are still ‘investigating’ and do not yet have a smoking gun. And they do not have a smoking gun because there is none. In fact, 1MDB has not lost any money and even if it is true that money has been stolen it was not stolen from 1MDB.
This is almost like the President Kennedy assassination. For 55 years they still do not really know what happened, or what really happened to Marilyn Monroe for that matter. But they need to perpetuate the myth that 1MDB’s money was stolen and that Najib and/or people close to him stole it. And that was what yesterday’s Bloomberg story is all about — as were the two US DoJ press conferences and media statements in July 2016 and June 2017.
And that was supposed to be Mahathir’s ‘golden bullet’ to bring down Umno and Barisan Nasional and replace it with DAP and Pakatan Harapan in the upcoming general election. Mahathir is so jealous not only with Najib but with Najib’s stepson as well. Mahathir cannot stand the fact that Riza is successful and did not need the government to make it — like Mukhriz, Mokhzani and Mirzan did.
Mahathir is jealous that his sons needed government help to become rich while Riza made it on his own
That is why Mahathir keeps saying Riza Aziz stole 1MDB’s money when not even the DoJ says he did.
Mahathir is even more upset that Rafidah Aziz revealed he asked her to give public company shares and APs to his sons. Now the whole world knows that his sons made millions through government help and, most important of all, this happened when he was still the Prime Minister (although he keeps saying his sons became millionaires AFTER he retired as Prime Minister).
As much as Mahathir says his sons did not get government help to become rich, the evidence shows otherwise. And if you were to say Najib’s stepson made it on his own, Mahathir’s heart would flutter and they would need to rush him to IJN.
