YOURSAY | ‘What enormous shame 1MDB and its conspirators have brought to the country.’

'M'sians defrauded on enormous scale, 1MDB funds used to pay gambling debts'

Vijay47: Throughout the country, there will be much celebration that the 1MDB scandal has finally acquired tangible proportions through the measures taken by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a development which only adds to our shame in that a foreign authority had to act on criminal efforts produced by Malaysian expertise.

While we are gloating that two infamous names, Riza Aziz and that slug of a Chinaman, Jho Low, are at last facing the music, everyone is eagerly awaiting the official revelation of who ‘Malaysian Official 1’ (MO1) is, though it would hardly take a Poirot to figure it out.

Incidentally, is MO1 a play on 1MDB? The cause for greater rejoicing would be that the crooked cast for whom the bell tolls has almost reached the proverbial cast of thousands.

Apart from those who have been mentioned, many in Malaysia would now be shivering and cowering under their blanket, terrified what new names would be starring in the following morning’s headlines, that is, foreign headlines.

First would be the attorney-general (AG) and the inspector-general of police (IGP), Bank Negara governor and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

They could be charged with any number of offences, including gross dereliction of duty, allegedly directly or indirectly aiding and abetting during and after the commission of criminal acts, and obstructing the course of justice.

Next would be all those who benefited from the proceeds of the gigantic scam that 1MDB is, gifts they initially gleefully thought was manna from heaven.

Considering the doggedness with which the DOJ pursued the matter, it would not be surprising if they already know the complex paths the alleged loot from 1MDB snaked and oiled its way to Umno, MCA, MIC, and Gerakan lackeys to ensure their continued support and loyalty.

It is highly unlikely that Malaysian enforcement agencies would initiate any action against the host of actors involved, but we can also hope that there are sufficient provisions in US laws to prosecute these characters.

Thus I am confident that in the meantime, the Malaysian cast will not be making any visit to Disneyland Anaheim soon.

The final group, featuring the likes of Umno’s Salleh Said Keruak and Gerakan’s Tan Keng Liang, is the one against which I readily confess a criminal charge cannot be laid, at least for the moment.

I mean, under what law can we charge either or both of them for “sheer stupidity beyond the order of nature”? All the same, keep the bubbly chilled.

FellowMalaysian: What enormous shame and insult 1MDB and its conspirators have brought to the country, the government and its people.

For the past one year, none of the Malaysian investigative agencies, namely the MACC, Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), Bank Negara and Attorney-General’s Chambers could find any wrongdoings with 1MDB.

It is left to a foreign country to do the dirty job and they sure delivered when the US DOJ released their investigation reports on 1MDB's money-laundering and kleptocracy activities.

No less than US$3.5 billion has been allegedly defrauded from the Malaysian people through 1MDB and they were used by the defrauders to enrich themselves.

So it looks like the people of this country have been sorely duped into electing a government which has now been declared by the US DOJ as being involved in stealing money from its people.

Doesn't that make the voters who voted for Umno-BN the past two elections a bunch of ignoramus dimwits?

James_3392: 1MDB funds used to pay gambling debt at Las Vegas? PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, we need your guidance on this financial deal.

Cogito Ergo Sum: When life imitates art. How profoundly true and funny that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was allegedly made by stolen money.

I am sure the producers had a good laugh at the double irony about making a movie about a thief and financing it with allegedly stolen money.

But the confiscated money cannot be returned to the very government that engineered this fraud. It will be double injustice.

The entire BN must go. Corruption is part of its genetic make-up, engineered 30 years ago. Many of the civil servants as well who were part of this grand scheme to defraud an entire nation must leave and face the consequences of their duplicity.

Should Najib go on leave now, I wonder? 'Made in Malaysia' will now be 'Made and stolen in Malaysia'.

How low can we go? We have hit an all-time Jho Low… er, I mean ‘low’.

Appum: A kleptomania (one who is involved in kleptocracy) is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "irresistible tendency to theft in persons not tempted to it by needy circumstances".

In other words, by greed and abuse of power. This is what has been happening all this while. These perpetrators are all wealthy, aren't they? They came from richly endowed families.

Jho Low really thinks he can get away with his schemes with today's forensic accounting and investigative methods and technology in communication?

So the timing of the "minta maaf" was a sign of things to come. But as they say, with such acts of abuse of power, sorry is no cure.

P Dev Anand Pillai: What a shame. But then again, if the Malay electorate doesn't care, it doesn't make much of a difference with these revelations.

Round one of M’sian AG vs US AG

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