Asked to comment on the report, Khalid told FMT in a Whatsapp message: “I have to check”.
FMT’s attempts to contact Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali have so far been unsuccessful.
Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that US Department of Justice (DoJ) officials had asked a judge in Los Angeles to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against assets acquired by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, because pursuing these might have “an adverse effect” on its ability to conduct the criminal investigation.
The assets, worth more than US$1 billion, include luxury real estate, art, film productions and more.
In its civil cases, the US had alleged that from 2009 through 2015, more than US$4.5 billion belonging to 1MDB was diverted by high-level officials of the fund and their associates.
Meanwhile, several opposition MPs urged Khalid, Apandi, and Bank Negara Governor Muhammad Ibrahim to fully cooperate with US authorities to get to the bottom of the allegations.
Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said the trio had done nothing so far to indicate they would help get to the truth of the matter.
“This see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil attitude is a betrayal of the public’s trust in our institutions,” added the PKR MP.
Penampang MP Darell Leiking, who is also Parti Warisan Sabah deputy president, said Apandi should be questioned again on what he was doing regarding this and why another country was dispensing justice for Malaysians.
“It would seem the DoJ’s latest move shows us that the US is taking action against alleged wrongdoers for and on behalf of the present and future Malaysian citizens, who are the victims of this issue,” he added.
Both Wong and Leiking called for a special parliamentary session to discuss the latest development. However, in the same breath, both admitted that it was unlikely to happen.
Wong said: “We must have a special parliamentary session, but then with the current comical ruling that we cannot even mention 1MDB in parliament, what will we be debating?”
In the most recent Dewan Rakyat sitting, speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia rejected more than 30 questions pertaining to 1MDB, saying discussions on the issue were subjudice since they were related to civil suits by the US Department of Justice.
Leiking doubted the speaker would call for a special session as Putrajaya was in a “denial syndrome” over the matter and keeps giving excuses to avoid debating the matter in parliament.
“Even questions by concerned parliamentarians have been rejected for reasons of subjudice when no action is being taken in Malaysia over the matter.
“Parliament is in fact the best place to debate the 1MDB issue because elected representatives can ask the government what happened, what is the solution and where this issue is headed to.”
What’s next?
Leiking said Malaysia’s reputation was bound to take a beating again, especially given Putrajaya’s “denial syndrome” but Wong believed that the DoJ’s latest move spells trouble for Jho Low.
“It now appears that Jho Low’s days are truly numbered. Once criminal investigations start in the US, there is no where left to hide except in some lawless state. No more partying in New York, London or Paris.”
Wong said Jho Low would probably have to leave Hong Kong as well, and that Interpol would be asked to cooperate to apprehend him and extradite him to the US.
“The question is how far will this go? The DoJ report also places a lot of prominence on Riza Aziz and Jasmine Loo. Will they be charged?”
Riza, who is Prime Minister Najib Razak’s step-son, is the CEO of Red Granite, a US-based production company behind the Oscar-nominated Wolf of Wall Street.
Red Granite was named by the DoJ as one of the recipients of money allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB, though this has been refuted by the company.
Loo is a former chief counsel for 1MDB and was 1MDB’s liaison to Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which helped 1MDB raise US$6 billion.
According to previous documents filed by the DoJ, some US$5 million raised for 1MDB allegedly travelled through shell companies and ended up in Loo’s Swiss bank account.