FORMER head of state-owned Emirati oil company International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) is pulling out all the stops to find out the persons responsible for the leaks that tied him to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
 
Khadem Al Qubaisi, who was IPIC managing director, was abruptly let go in April last year after 1MDB’s losses became apparent to Abu Dhabi in 2015.
 
Under Khadem, IPIC had guaranteed US$3.5 billion (RM15.2 billion) of 1MDB’s bonds in 2012. IPIC has since managed to reach a settlement with 1MDB after its claims went into arbitration in London last month.
 
But for Khadem, it all started in 2015 when he went to great lengths to find the two men who tried to blackmail him into paying US$60 million for them to keep quiet about information on the 1MDB case.
 
However, according to Intelligence Online’s sources, the two men, Khadem’s Franco-Algerian former personal secretary Racem H and Khadem’s former associate, Franco-Israeli national Albert L had filed complaints in Paris and Algiers accusing him of trying to silence them.
 
Khadem then employed his  friend and private investigator Bernard Squarcini, the former head of French internal intelligence service Direction Centrale du Renseignement Interieur to locate the two men.
 
At the time, Racem had taken refuge in Algeria, keeping the Algerian intelligence service close by for protection, while Albert had returned to Israel.
 
It was discovered through leaked emails that Squarcini had invited Arcanum Global Intelligence, his corporate intelligence partner to be his “dear Watson” to investigate the case.
 
Not only did Khadem hired Squarcini, he had also gone for the overkill in hiring Mohammed Dahlan, the former Fatah intelligence chief in Gaza who later became special operations’ adviser to Mohammed Zayed.
 
Dahlan offered to help on the Israeli side of the hunt, given his good relationship with the country’s intelligence services.
 
While the cloak and dagger investigations are happening, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also ongoing investigations on Khadem for allegedly receiving hundreds of millions of dollars looted from 1MDB’s US$1 billion state wealth fund.
 
Alongside the FBI, Khadem is also wanted by the French police, the Spanish, and the Italian authorities probing Khadem in the same affair.
 
But why are the French interested in Khadem? Has the 1MDB scandal reached French soil?
 
Intelligence Online revealed in January that Khadem had his influence planted in the French government led by Nicolas Sarkozy at the time of the affair.
 
Along Nicolas there is also Frederic Lassagne, a former French government official who now works in finance.
 
Frederic was previously with Euro RSCG and served as former finance minister Francis Mer’s chief of staff. He was Eric Besson’s special advisor in the three years that Eric was Frederic’s industry minister.
 
Khadem had Eric appointed to the board of the Spanish subsidiary of IPIC, Cepsa, which Khadem chaired. However, Eric had since stepped down from the board when the Khadem 1MDB scandal broke.
 
According to the French intelligence report, Khadem is currently in the United Arab Emirates under the protection of Mansour Zayed Al Nahyan, IPIC chairman and brother of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Zayed Al Nahyan. – May 13, 2017.