This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 15, 2024 - April 21, 2024

JASMINE Loo was the third individual wanted by the authorities, on the Interpol Red Notice list,  to return to Malaysia.

More than 10 years on from the first signs of trouble at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), there are still a number of individuals who remain on the run, sought by the authorities to assist with investigations into 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore, its subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd and International Petroleum Investment Co.

Below is a list of key persons in the ongoing 1MDB criminal trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the majority of whom remain on the run.

Suboh was the first to return to Malaysia in 2019 and testified in Najib’s SRC International trial.

The former director of SRC was on the run for three years before returning. In the SRC trial, he testified that he was told to leave the country in 2015 to avoid investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The 73-year-old said in 2019 that he was prepared to come clean to the MACC in 2015 but someone from the commission had called him and advised him to flee. He claimed that he did not know who the individual was but the person had claimed to be from the MACC.

Suboh said he felt scared at the time as Najib was still in power. “I did not know what would happen to me and my family, so I ran away to Bangkok for about a month.”

From Bangkok, he fled to Abu Dhabi. 

After Abu Dhabi, Suboh took a flight back to Bangkok and returned to Malaysia. He did not state when this took place, but it was most likely over the period of 2015 to 2018.

Suboh is a key witness in Najib’s SRC International civil trial where the government is suing the former PM for US$1.18 billion.

Said to be one of Low Taek Jho’s (Jho Low) associates, Kee was named in the ongoing RM680 million forfeiture action filed by the Malaysian government against a number of individuals.

Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping revealed during Najib’s SRC criminal trial that she was required to claim the money she had advanced to Najib for an overdue account through Kee.

Kee also fled the country, but on May 5, 2023, he was brought back by Malaysian authorities through the cooperation of enforcement agencies abroad. Kee was allegedly deported from Macau for overstaying his visa.

He was questioned by the MACC upon his return, but soon after, on May 29, suffered a sudden massive stroke and was pronounced dead.

Jho Low is said to be the architect behind the 1MDB scandal, and was described by senior deputy public prosecutor and former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as Najib’s alter ego.

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the US, Low leveraged his influential contacts in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

He was the unofficial adviser to Terengganu Investment Authority, the predecessor to 1MDB. Low is accused of using 1MDB funds to purchase a luxury yacht, Equanimity, which was seized by the Indonesian authorities and handed over to Malaysia in 2019. The vessel was sold to Genting Malaysia Bhd and renamed Tranquility. Genting subsequently put the yacht up for sale. It is unknown if it is still on the market.

Low, who was born in Penang in 1981, is said to have left Malaysia via the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport on May 29, 2015. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission managed to record his statement in Abu Dhabi on Nov 27, 2015.

He was one of the first of the group to leave the country and has not returned to Malaysia since.

In 2022, American law firm Kobre & Kim, which was representing Jho Low, negotiated with then attorney-general Tan Sri Idrus Harun to repatriate siphoned monies from 1MDB.

Subsequently, Idrus said Jho Low was seeking to resolve, settle and annul his criminal charges with the Malaysian government but that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had rejected all offers.

Last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim confirmed that negotiations were ongoing to bring Jho Low back to Malaysia to face the music, but there have been no updates since and he remains at large.

Nik Faisal, who was managing director and CEO of SRC, also played a role as the mandate holder for Najib’s AmBank Islamic accounts into which US$680 million was deposited.

He is said to have been recommended by Najib’s principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias, to manage and to be mandate holder of Najib’s private accounts. Before Nik Faisal was SRC managing director, he was chief financial officer at 1MDB.

Nik Faisal had his statement recorded by the MACC in Jakarta on Oct 17, 2015, and is said to have left Malaysia two days before the 14th general election in 2018. He has not been seen since.

Tan is known to be instrumental in Jho Low’s banking transactions and owns companies in Malaysia and Singapore.

The 45-year-old Tan represented Jho Low at Affinity International Equity Partners and Tanore Finance Corp, both British Virgin Islands-registered companies/shell companies set up to siphon billions of dollars of 1MDB funds.

Sri Ram previously stated in the 1MDB trial that on May 22, 2012, US$295 million was paid by Aabar to Blackstone Asia, a company controlled by Jho Low, through his associate Tan. The funds originated from 1MDB.

Tan and Jho Low have been charged in absentia with laundering US$125.97 million. Tan is said to have left Malaysia in 2015, before Jho Low and, like the latter, is still at large.

The 52-year-old Geh was 1MDB director of finance. He and Nik Faisal were said to have played a role in approving the transfer of funds and investment in the Pacific Harbour fund in Singapore, which turned out to be a sham investment. This was disclosed during the trial of former BSI private banker Yeo Jia Wei in Singapore.

Geh is said to have left Malaysia on May 8, 2018, and is still at large.

Tang is a former director of 1MDB. The 58-year-old — described as “1MDB officer 1” in the US Department of Justice documents — is said to have played a key role in misleading banks in the transfer of US$700 million from 1MDB to Good Star Ltd, a company controlled by Jho Low.

Like Geh, Tang left Malaysia a day before the 14th general election and has not been heard from since.
 

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