By Ali Cordoba
The 1MDB has every ingredients for a thriller, said former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad. And this article depicts some of the thrilling moments, involving red carpet hollywood stars, to a corporate social responsibility project involving a Mosque in Kuala Lumpur township, once a hotbed for the reformasi movement headed by yet another former PM, jailbird Anwar Ibrahim.
As 1mdb continues to dominate the headlines in Malaysia, and the ‪Panama Papers ‬failing to bury the massive sovereign fund scandal, a Hollywood executive who happens to be Riza Aziz, a film producer, and the stepson of Malaysia’s prime minister may have bought his $33.5 million NYC condominium with dirty laundered 1mdb money, says reports.
This scandal has thrown the names of many popular stars, and dragged the name of newly acclaimed hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio into the long list of scandal that has rigged the embattled fund.
Now we learn that five years after Red Granite threw one of the most spectacular — and expensive — launch parties Cannes has ever seen (DiCaprio, a truckload of champagne, a Kanye West and Jamie Foxx “Gold Digger” duet, anyone?), the festival could well be the setting for a decidedly different chapter in the company’s troubled evolution, writes hollywoodreporter.
But 1MDB money, claimed the people who ran it – or at least those who had a say in its running even though they did sign documents but ignored what they were signing – was also used to build Mosques in Malaysia.
And no one can be holier than thou, if thou plough thou land to erect a house of God. Or so the 1MDB cohort thought the entire history of 1MDB would be rewritten in gold on the Hollywood mountain.
But in Malaysia, spending your money gained from any source whether it is legit or not, on a Mosque does not only turns your money into holy money, it should also make you a better person.
STICKY POT
Nevertheless, there is no day now since the 1MDB defaulted and since the Swiss Attorney General said it is certain its investigation
in the affair is growing into a massive international fraud circus, that 1MDB has not made the headlines across the globe. It looks more like a stinky pot now, more than ever and is refusing to go away despite paid economic pundits views that the Panama Papers are going to bury the 1MDB scandal and make it look tiny.
THE NAJIB RAZAK FACTOR
Whether Malaysia’s Premier, totally immersed in the 1MDB scandal, is aware of the great implications of this affair on his political future or not, would not matter anymore.
It is more than confirmed that Najib will remain in power for a very long time, and since the signs are there that he would probably survive the next General Elections, it is altogether clear that the 1MDB will remain as the biggest unresolved political and monetary scandal in the country’s history.
Photo: courtesy of shutterstock.com
Source: holywoodreporter, wsj, agencies, WFTV
By Cordoba.Ali