Every time Najib decides to publicly pontificate he reminds most Malaysians why they are so furious with this smug and pampered thief, who thinks that after a lifetime of ignoring the rules because of who his father was people will continue to agree to believe whatever changing nonsense he makes up.
Najib may indeed have drifted into a state of self-denial. He may have decided that thanks to Azmin’s coup he can escape the consequences of his actions Houdini-like once more. He may have calculated that success is indeed on the cards and he would like to justify himself as well as getting off the hook, but at this point of time, as his wife would say “Can someone advise him to shut up” if only because he is seriously undermining his chances of success?
His constant self-justifications in interviews and on Facebook may be his attempt to set a narrative of his choosing on record. However, they also make clear that this man has not a shred of remorse, not a shred of honesty and not a shred of humble decency throughout his body. Yet, he expects the world to sympathise with his self-pity – a man who has shown such callous disregard for the life, the rights and freedom of countless others.
He should shut up. But, to explain to him why SR has appended exactly what the general popular response will be to the various claims and remarks he just made in his ‘Outlook’ interview as reported in Malaysiakini. Comments in red:
“Ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak would have preferred his stepson Riza Aziz to clear his name in court but understands why the latter settled for a plea bargain deal with the Attorney-General’s Chamber (AGC).
If there was the slightest chance Riza could clear his name he would not have run away from court.
Najib said movie producer Riza had already lost five years of his life to the ordeal and that if the court case were to go on, it might take another four years, so the movie producer decided to “hand over all his assets” so he could start his life anew.
It seems we are supposed to feel sorry for poor Riza who has “lost five years of his life” since being found out as a fraud who used hundreds of millions of stolen public funds prancing round Hollywood calling himself a producer.
“If you ask me, I would have preferred Riza to continue the process in court. If he continued the process in court, the real facts would have surfaced.
Indeed they would have. However, by and large the facts have already surfaced and the facts are that Riza is a money launderer.
“For Riza, he has faced this ordeal for five years where he could not start any new business and if the court case were to go on, it might eat up another four years.
Shafee and his pouting blonde wife would certainly have strung this case out for as long as they were able. However, Riza’s ‘ordeal’ has consisted of him living a five star luxury life off stolen money and doing very little for the past five years…. which is pretty much how he has always lived. If anyone is stupid enough to go into business with Riza in the future they should not expect any of that to change. If Riza has experienced any discomforts during this period, then that will have come from his own FEAR. Fear that the consequences of his actions might end up in a conviction and a genuine punishment. Otherwise, compared to the countless individuals hounded by Najib into jail or worse, Riza has not endured any ordeal of any kind.
“So 10 years, a decade of his life, he cannot do anything. So he said, ‘it’s okay, I will hand over all these assets in the settlement. I want my freedom for me to restart my life.’
“That is his wish. All right, it’s okay. He gave up, you could say, all his assets as long as he got his freedom. It is okay that he has to start his life from scratch, as long as he gets the chance to restart his life,” Najib said in an interview with The Outlook livestreamed on his Facebook page last night.
Malaysians now know that Riza has not given up any assets. The deal was based on assets already seized by the DOJ in America and are no longer Riza’s to return. This is what is termed a hoax, intended to deceive the Malaysian public into thinking they are at least getting something in return for the charges that have been dropped against a man who admits he stole twice as much. Worse, it now appears the cash from these assets was already returned as part of the $300m handed over by the US last month. So, the only deal that has happened here has been the deal with Najib/UMNO to let off Riza – and indeed a whole lot of others – in return for keeping up the life-support for ‘PM8’ and his puppet master Azmin Ali.
On May 14, Riza was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) over five money laundering charges, subject to him fulfilling the terms of an agreement with the prosecution to return to the government millions of ringgit.
Najib claimed that some of the facts which would have surfaced in court had Riza’s case gone on would reveal that his stepson was not charged for stealing money.
Even the US Department of Justice (DOJ) did not charge Riza for misappropriation of money, he stressed.
No, it was “MO1” (Najib) who stole the money. He then passed it to step-son Riza to launder it.
Instead, Riza was charged under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) for receiving money which turned out to be related to 1MDB, though he purportedly did not know it at the time, Najib said.
“He received the money because he received an investment from Aabar… which was instructed by the United Arab Emirates royal family who said they wanted to invest in his movie productions.
Given that the whole of Malaysia has heard Najib on the phone attempting to cook up this cock and bull story with the Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi himself, it really is quite astounding that he thinks that people are going to be anything but furious that he should imagine them so stupid as to now believe it. Remember how Najib admitted in that call (see below) that the money Riza got was “money laundering” but to ‘protect people close to both of them’ he begged the Crown Prince to lie and issue a statement pretending that he lent the money? Problem is, Abu Dhabi decided not to play ball on that one. Instead, the DOJ came into the frame with a detailed court action spelling out exactly how Najib/Jho Low stole the money and passed it on to Riza to make his movies. Riza hasn’t denied any of it. To the contrary, he paid up $60m to the DOJ and surrendered his US assets in order to avoid being prosecuted further there.
Najib: I also have this personal request, Your Highness
Mohammed: Yes?
Najib: That relates to Riza. You know, my son.
Mohammed: Yes.
Najib: And his movie. You see the problem is relatively small. There can be an agreement with Sheikh Mansour to have a loan agreement signed, and he will pay back according to his schedule. That will show that it is a legitimate financing package and it is not money laundering.
Mohammed: I see.
Najib: At the moment, he is under a bit of pressure in America, and we are worried about him. They are making him a scapegoat, you see. I would appreciate, the big package looks positive, we can find a solution I believe, uhh. I would appreciate if that agreement can be signed quickly by Sheikh Mansour or whoever is designated by Sheikh Mansour, so that he can begin repayment. He’s paid back some, he continues to repay, so that it would appear as a legitimate loan agreement, which it is, you see. Because when he received it, the banks cleared the source of money so he was not aware at all where it came from.
So I don’t want him to be a victim when he was totally unaware of the source of money. He genuinely believed that it was from Aabar and under the instruction of Sheikh Mansour, you see.
“Aabar is a company with an AAA credit rating, so when he received the money from Aabar, he thought it really was money from Aabar and the banks did not warn him or raise any red flags to him that this money is related to 1MDB or anything.
Good luck to anyone who decides to do business with Riza after all this. The best interpretation, giving him the benefit of the doubt, is that he is as stupid and useless as Najib was making him out to be to the Crown Prince, not realising (as Najib makes clear in the call he himself did) that the money pouring into his account was stolen rather than lent to him from Aabar. A half decent businessman trained in banking might have checked the source of hundreds of millions of dollars of loans just a tad more carefully perhaps?
“So as far as Riza was concerned, this was Aabar’s money and no one told him otherwise, so he received it in good faith,” Najib said….
Riza bought ‘all sorts of assets’ with movie earnings
When Riza’s movies like Wolf Of Wall Street went on to make big earnings at the box-office, Najib said his stepson then bought all sorts of assets with the earnings.
Najib further explained that when Riza realised the funds he received may be “tainted” money, the latter had said he was willing to surrender all his assets to resolve the case.
He said the MACC and then attorney-general Tommy Thomas knew that the case would be a difficult one as the transactions all happened overseas and the government might lose the case if it went to trial and also it was likely that the asset recovery might take a long time.
The MACC had said as part of the plea bargain with Riza, the Malaysian government will see the return of US$107.3 million (RM465.3 million) in overseas assets.
“The MACC is satisfied because they got the assets much earlier in a process which might have taken a long time.
The MACC needs to state whether or not it is true that they have in fact already received the money raised from Riza’s US assets – well in advance of this so-called ‘plea deal’ – as part of the $300m handed over last month.
“At that time, it is true that the then attorney-general had agreed (to the deal) in principle.
“But if he wants to say otherwise and he thinks he was an attorney-general for Pakatan Harapan, that is not true. Actually, he is the attorney-general for the country, not for Harapan,” Najib said.
Independent, like Apandi Ali?
Responding to a question that there is a perspective that Riza was granted his DNAA due to the change in government, Najib said the MACC itself has already said the process was started during Thomas’ time as attorney-general.
Who is the more credible witness, Najib Razak or Tommy Thomas? Even if Najib Razak were not one of the world’s most discredited liars, who has the motive to free Riza Aziz on an empty deal and who had the motive to see him properly found guilty and punished?
“Thomas already agreed in principle but he did not manage to finalise the decision… he did not object or stop (the deal),” Najib said.
Tommy Thomas has spent the last week objecting this claim is a lie.
Thomas has since said several times that any implications that he had agreed to the settlement deal with Riza were “lies”.
Rosmah should ‘advise’ her husband, as is her wont, to shut up.