The “Malaysian Official 1” named in the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) civil suit related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) refers to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan confirmed.
Abdul Rahman confirmed this during a recent interview with BBC.
“I’ve said it openly. Obviously if you read the documents, it is the Prime Minister,” BBC quoted him as saying in an article titled Who is Malaysian Official 1? Case Closed, published on its website yesterday.
However, Abdul Rahman, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, went on to suggest that the reason Najib was not named in the DoJ report was because he was not involved in the investigation.
In a statement, Abdul Rahman said the difference between being named as the subject of a lawsuit and merely being referred to in an investigation, was black and white.
He claimed former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and his allies were trying to mix the two up.
Does Dahlan think Malaysians are dumb?!
The reason the Prime Minister’s actual name was not featured in the law suit was because he is not the registered owner of the assets facing seizure in the United States.
However, if he is indeed Malaysian Official Number One, then the facts of the DOJ indictment show that he is plainly guilty of numerous criminal acts in the jurisdiction of Malaysia!
These include the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars that went into his own account.
Significantly, today was the day by which those named ie Jho Low, Riza Aziz (Najib’s own stepson currently cowering in KL), Khadem Al Qubaisi et al, needed to contest the US indictment if they were going to.
They did not dare.
Instead, those who could get away have become fugitives, whilst the others are arrested in Abu Dhabi, where the government has certainly taken action over these monstrous thefts, unlike in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, since Mr Dahlan was so clearly admitting to the BBC that MO1 is Najib, there are a number of follow up questions he ought to be pressed to answer. The first of these is whether he now therefore accepts that the excuse of an ‘anonymous Saudi Royal’ being the source of the $731 which the DOJ says went from 1MDB to Najib was just a big fat lie on the part of the Prime Minister?
If not, then is he saying that the DOJ was lying, because it is either one or the other?
In which case, how come he is not denouncing the DOJ investigation, not merely trying to distance his boss from it in this very unsuccessful and unconvincing manner?