1. “The government of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak spent years systematically obstructing probes into the alleged looting of state fund 1MDB, while also ruthlessly muzzling critics.”
2. “Any suppression of the probe in Malaysia ended abruptly in May when Najib lost power in an election.”
3. “Interviews by Reuters with a dozen current and former government officials show that the obstruction of investigators occurred on multiple levels.”
4. “One senior MACC investigator said he was convinced there was tampering with key witnesses.”
5. ”The official, who declined to be identified because he is still involved in the 1MDB probe, said he felt that by the time MACC got to talk to the witnesses they had been coached on what to say or were too frightened to talk because they had been threatened.”
6. “There were some witnesses who disappeared, ran abroad," and some were clearly told by officials from other government agencies to do so, said the MACC official.”
7. “Najib's office also sought to tightly control any public comment on 1MDB.” (Includes monitoring social media comments)
8. “MACC is supposed to be an independent government agency that works without government interference, but three former MACC communications officers told Reuters that many of the press releases on the 1MDB probe issued by MACC were written by the prime minister's office.”
9. “New Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, told Reuters there was an "extensive cover up" at the ministry of finance (MOF).”
10. “The intensity of the pressure that MACC faced from other arms of government is only now becoming clear.”
11. Shukri Abdull, Head of MACC recalled how he had faced threats to his job and worse - a bullet was sent to his home in 2015. He sought and received U.S. police protection during a visit to Washington and NY because he felt he was being followed by Malaysian government agents.”
12. “The senior MACC official also said Police interfered in MACC's investigations as they closed in on a probe on how about $10.6 million from SRC went into Najib's bank account.”
13. “He said some witnesses in that probe could not be found because they were being held at police headquarters.”
14. “A senior government source said civil servants at the MOF, which was also run by Najib, were instructed to cover up the 1MDB affair. “Decisions were made at PMO. And MOF had to find a way to hide it and figure out a way to pay for it," this person said.”
I am sure Tommy Thomas knew all of this and he should have objected to bail. Najib Razak is still dangerous with unaccounted billions with him.
Anyway, those were the excerpts from Reuters exclusive except the penultimate point. You can read the full story here. reuters.com/article/us-mal…
