PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has issued a warrant of arrest and notified Interpol to issue a red alert on three individuals linked to 1MDB.
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Chief commissioner Latheefa Koya said Interpol was notified yesterday on the three: Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, and PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI) directors Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony.
She said they are charged with criminal conspiracy in abetting a total of US$69 million (RM286 million), money MACC said was linked to 1MDB and SRC International.
“We have filed the charges but they are not in the country, so we had to issue warrants of arrest,” she told reporters at the APEC 2020 Symposium on Gender Mainstreaming and Women Empowerment to Fight Corruption here.
Latheefa said MACC has been empowered to charge them although they are foreigners who are currently overseas.
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“What you always hear is the amount (of money) in the country.
“But in reality, we are talking about (money) around the world,” she said, adding that the trio have details on the monies.
In November, former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi told Najib Razak’s corruption trial that Jho Low had conspired with Mahony and Obaid to mislead the former prime minister.
Jho Low has been pursued by Malaysia and Singapore over his role in the 1MDB scandal.
Recent reports have placed him in China, Hong Kong, Macau and the United Arab Emirates, all of which have been dismissed by Malaysian police as “fake”. -FMT