AG’s Chambers receives 1MDB investigation papers from MACC

PUTRAJAYA: The AttorneyGeneral Chambers (AGC) has received the investigation papers relating to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday, said AttorneyGeneral Tommy Thomas.

Thomas, in a statement, said the AGC would require time to review the papers ‘but appreciate the urgency and sensitivity of its task’.

“In order to effectively discharge our duties, I have appointed a team to study the papers with a view to possibly instituting criminal prosecution and another to study them with civil proceedings in mind,”he said.

He said both teams were made up of experienced deputy public prosecutors and senior federal counsel who would report directly to him.

Thomas also said that he had just signed Mutual Legal Assistance requests from Switzerland, United States, France and the United Arab Emirates and hoped to commence assistance and collaborative efforts with them.

Meanwhile, businessman Low Taek Jho who is at the centre of the debt-laden and scandal-ridden 1MDB fund, is believed to be hiding in Macau.

A report in the Malaysian Reserve said that Malaysian authorities are believed to be unable to pursue Low, better known as Jho Low, as the country does not have an extradition treaty with Macau.

On June 8, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Low was hiding in a country with which Malaysia has no extradition treaty.

“We are trying to arrest Jho Low, but he is not in the country. And we do not have extradition rights in the country where he is hiding,” he said.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has issued an arrest warrant for Low and SRC International Berhad director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

The duo are suspects in an investigation into SRC, the former 1MDB subsidiary that had allegedly transferred RM42 million into the personal account of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.