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Sunday 27 November 2016

White House petitioned to reveal MO1's identity

Some 10,000 people have signed an official online petition to the White House seeking details on 'Malaysian Official 1 (MO1)' that was named in a civil forfeiture suit initiated by the US Depart of Justice (DOJ).

The petition said that the court documents had claimed that US$681 million had been illegally transferred to the personal bank accounts belonging to MO1 and yet there has been no investigations in Malaysia.

"(Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak has continuously denied he was MO1. To end this infamous kleptocracy, we Malaysians want to know who MO1 is," read the petition.

The petition was filed through the 'We the People' page on the White House website.

If a petition receives 100,000 signatures within 30 days of filing, which was on Nov 24, the White House has to issue an official response.

The suit in question was filed against the proceeds of "The Wolf of Wall Street" motion picture, which was allegedly funded through monies that originated from 1MDB.

It was initiated by the DOJ's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which described this case as its biggest ever.

Among other allegations, the court documents claimed that 1MDB was supposed to use its funds for the benefit of Malaysians.

Instead, the money was diverted by fund officials and their associates to purchase yachts, hotels, jet plans, artwork by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Money, pay gambling debts and to fund "The Wolf of Wall Street".

According to the FBI's International Corruption Unit and the US Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigative Division, at least US$1 billion traceable to the conspiracy was laundered through the US and used to purchase assets there.

To Malaysians, the most significant claim was that US$731 million in 1MDB funds was transferred to the bank accounts of MO1.

MO1 was mentioned 36 times in the DOJ document, while Najib's associate Jho Low and his stepson Riza Aziz were both explicitly mentioned.

Coincidentally, Najib had once admitted that he had received about RM2.6 billion from Middle Eastern "donors" and denied that it had anything to do with 1MDB.

Najib has also claimed the DOJ's lawsuit does not involve him in any way.

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