A TOP Republican fundraiser close to President Donald Trump apparently asked as much as US$75 million (RM295 million) from Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho to get the United States to stop investigating the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, The Wall Street Journal reports yesterday.
The US business daily broke the news by reviewing a cache of emails from Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and a long-time Republican donor, and his wife, Robin Rosenzweig, a lawyer.
“The messages include draft agreements between Ms Rosenzweig’s California law firm and representatives of Mr Low about the possible terms of their business engagement. In one draft, there is a proposal that includes a US$75 million fee if the Justice Department quickly drops its investigation,” the daily said in an online report.
The WSJ said the emails “discuss setting up a consulting contract with Jho Low”, as the Malaysian businessman is known. He is at the centre 1MDB scandal, which has shone a limelight to the fund’s prime mover, Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Both Najib and Low have denied any wrongdoing in the scandal engulfing 1MDB, which is now run by Malaysia’s powerful Ministry of Finance (MoF).
“Along with the contract drafts, the emails also appear to show Mr Broidy prepared talking points for Malaysia’s prime minister ahead of a 2017 visit to Washington that included a meeting with Mr Trump and other officials.
“In the talking points, the prime minister was advised to state that Malaysia wanted to emphasise its work with the US in confronting North Korea, while also arguing against the US legal pursuit of the 1MDB matter.
“It isn’t clear what, if anything, came of the talking points,” the WSJ reported. Najib visited Trump at the White House last September.
The details of the purported effort to influence the US Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation were included in a cache of emails from Broidy’s and his wife’s email accounts provided to the newspaper, the WSJ said.
It said Broidy was a vice-chairman for the Trump campaign’s joint fund with the Republican Party during the 2016 campaign, helping it raise more than US$108 million, adding the long-time Republican donor gave more than US$160,000 last year to the Republican National Committee, where he is currently a national deputy finance chairman.
The WSJ said Chris Clark of Latham & Watkins LLP, on behalf of Broidy and his wife, who runs Colfax Law Office Inc, said in a statement that Rosenzweig’s law firm was engaged by Pras Michel, a member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees and a friend of Low, “to provide strategic advice as part of a broader team to Mr Low”.
“During the course of this engagement a number of strategies were discussed with Mr Broidy, Mr Michel, and other members of the team. But at no time did Mr Broidy or Ms Rosenzweig, or anyone acting on their behalf, discuss Mr Low’s case with President Trump, any member of his staff, or anyone at the US Department of Justice,” said the statement to the WSJ.
Clark added that neither Colfax Law nor Broidy has ever represented Malaysia or any of its officials “in any capacity”.
“We are concerned that the Wall Street Journal is in possession of internal drafts of documents that were never used, and that were never intended to be shared with third parties,” he said.
“We question the legality and propriety of the manner in which the documents were obtained.”
But the emails the WSJ viewed did not show whether Rosenzweig’s firm finalised terms of the agreement with Low.
In 2009, Broidy pleaded guilty to a felony charge of rewarding official misconduct and admitted to making nearly US$1 million in gifts to benefit four former top officials in the office that oversees New York state’s pension fund, which made US$250 million in investments in his firm, the WSJ said.
As part of his guilty plea, he agreed to forfeit US$18 million to New York state.
The DoJ declined to provide any comment to the WSJ.
Low did not respond to the WSJ request for comments but a spokesman told The Malaysian Insight that the businessman had never signed any agreement or paid the couple anything.
1MDB has denied any money is missing from its coffers and had said it would cooperate with any lawful investigation. Multiple investigations in Malaysia into 1MDB closed without finding wrongdoing.
The DoJ had filed two suits, alleging that Low helped siphon off at least US$4.5 billion from 1MDB, between 2009 and 2015, for himself and others to buy luxury homes in the US, frequent Las Vegas nightclubs and fund Hollywood movies, among other things.
Since mid-2016, the DoJ sought via civil suits in California to seize almost US$2 billion in assets allegedly bought with the stolen money.
On Wednesday, Indonesian authorities seized a US$250 million yacht in Bali after a request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The yacht is said to be belong to Low, who said “the DoJ was continuing with its pattern of global over-reach – all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing”. – March 2, 2018.
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Comments
Posted 6 years ago by L.B. Saw · Reply
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Posted 6 years ago by Interesting Guy · Reply
Actually, such hanky-panky between the 1MDB criminals and the scandal-ridden Trump presidency is entirely within expectations. And with this exposure, it is hoped that America will pursue the lead to safeguard its government’s integrity from further erosion.
Meanwhile, Malaysians may be encouraged by the latest news on Equanimity which may indicate that such dark moves made by the 1MDB schemers may not have borne fruits – for now.
Posted 6 years ago by Kim quek · Reply
That is how you drive a hard bargain no ?
Posted 6 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply