Thread by @karolcummins

💰1MDB & UAE💰

Stolen Emails Show Ties Between U.A.E. Envoy and 1MDB Fund’s Central Figure
Amb Yousef Al Otaiba had longstanding ties to a financier the U.S. says is at the center of a scandal surrounding a Malaysian state development fund

wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

Leaked emails are embedded in this article: #1MDB

sarawakreport.org/2017/08/more-l…

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the U.S., attempted to shape American policy toward the Middle East & lobbied over a regional dispute with Qatar. #KushBlockade
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

The leaked emails show a long-running relationship between Mr. Otaiba and Jho Low, who U.S. law-enforcement officials say is at the center of the misappropriation of $4.5 billion from a Malaysian state development fund.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

The stolen emails show Mr. Otaiba and Shaher Awartani, his Jordanian partner, discussed inquiries from those countries about transactions they received from entities investigators say are connected to Jho Low
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

📌In one email, Awartani suggested buying a Ferrari after what Otaiba described as a “transfer from Jho.”

“I think we each deserve to buy a nice toy in celebration, what do you think ?? The 458 ITALIA maybe?,” Mr. Awartani wrote to Mr. Otaiba in 2009.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

📌Documents show companies connected to Yousef Al Otaiba received $66 million allegedly misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Bhd #1MDB
wsj.com/articles/u-a-e…

The emails detail Otaiba’s sizable wealth, including millions of dollars of shares in Peter Thiel’s PALANTIR Technologies, a data-analysis company that has numerous contracts w/ the US intel & law-enforcement community, & the Carlyle Group investment firm.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

Otaiba is a frequent source of advice to Kush on ME policy, He has also urged the Trump adm to back efforts by the UAE, Saudi & other ME countries to isolate Qatar, which they accuse of supporting Islamist terror groups like al Qaeda, which Qatar denies
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

📌Side note: The troubling overlap between Kushner's business interests and US foreign policy

📌A congressional inquiry has raised the possibility that Kushner supported a blockade of a US ally as payback because it would not fund his family’s business
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

📌Side note2: The Kushners Are Finally Getting That Sweet, Sweet Qatari Cash

Qatar, under siege, opens its pocketbook to help save 666 Fifth.
#Trump #Kush #Bannon #Qatar #GlobalExtortion
vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/k…

🔑Switzerland, Singapore and the U.S. said officials are looking into the circumstances of the transfers to companies controlled by Otaiba and Awartani, and whether they bought assets with funds originating from 1MDB.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

In a September 2014 email, Otaiba encouraged Abu Dhabi banks to participate in a short-term refinancing loan being arranged by DUETSCHE Bank for 1MDB. The emailed request was identical to a draft sent to Otaiba from Eric Tan, an associate of Mr. Low.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

🔑In a recent civil-asset forfeiture filing, the Justice Department said about $700 million of a $975 million Deutsche Bank loan to 1MDB was embezzled, with some of that money allegedly used by Mr. Low to buy jewelry for his then-girlfriend, Miranda Kerr.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

🔑Several Abu Dhabi banks provided funds for the Deutsche Bank loan to 1MDB, people familiar with the deal said.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1149429736042483712?s=21

Singapore investigative documents reviewed by the Journal show a $3 million payment to a British Virgin Islands company controlled by Otaiba and Awartani a few days before the email from Mr. Tan, and another $13 million payment
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

To the same company two months later. The sender of both payments was a BVI company owned by Mr. Tan that the DOJ says distributed money embezzled from 1MDB, including the Deutsche Bank loan, according to the civil asset-forfeiture filing.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

💰BVI💰

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1147203517439807488?s=21

🔑Another email, from Dec 2009, shows Otaiba urging THOMAS BARRACK Jr., founder of Colony Capital in CA (Trump Inauguration Chair), to accept a bid from a hotel operator partly owned by Low’s family trust to buy L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

🔑Colony Capital owned the hotel.
Low’s private investment company eventually bought the L’Ermitage in 2010 for more than $45M.

🔑The DOJ has filed civil-asset-forfeiture suits seeking to seize the hotel, alleging it was bought with stolen 1MDB funds.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

Scrutiny of Mr. Otaiba’s U.S., Swiss and Singaporean accounts appeared to kick off in 2015.

📌Swiss private bank Lombard Odier began demanding more information about transfers to accounts controlled by Messrs. Otaiba and Awartani.
wsj.com/articles/stole…

📌A few weeks later, Messrs. Otaiba and Awartani closed their accounts and moved funds elsewhere.

The bank said it was cooperating with “any and all inquiries from regulatory and law enforcement authorities” related to 1MDB.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

Writing from an e-mail address affiliated with the island of St. Helena in May, Low wrote Awartani asking how to get in touch quickly. “Need to speak as questions being asked.

🔑Want to ensure coordinated,” per the stolen emails forwarded to Mr. Otaiba.
wsj.com/amp/articles/s…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and TY!

#1MDB
#DeutscheBank
#GoldmanSachs
#YousefAlOtaiba
#Awartani
#Thiel
#PALANTIR
#JhoLow
#UAE
#Kush
#Qatar
#AbuDhabi
#FCPA
#EricTan
#BVI
#Barrack
#ColonyCapital
#LErmitage