There seems to be a warped interpretation over what exactly does the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) charge sheet against Red Granite Inc mean, and I watch with horror that staunch defenders of the prime minister and his beleaguered baby, 1MDB, seem to have not addressed the fact that a crime has allegedly been committed.

Even our newly-minted law minister seems to have the impression that just because it is a civil suit and there is no defendant or plaintiff, that it is fine. Well, I am no lawyer, and it doesn’t take a legal genius to point out that

a) Money-laundering is a crime.

b) Riza Aziz is the subject of the civil suit along with his friend, Jho Low.

c) This civil suit is an application to seize assets bought from the proceeds of alleged money-laundering and plunder.

Ergo, there are two implications on the charge sheet. One is money-laundering and the other plunder. For all intents and purposes of this essay, we shall just concentrate on money-laundering as the implication of plunder requires me to carefully study the DOJ charge sheet and the available documents, to come up with some form of conclusive decision on plunder.

What is bemusing to watch are the numerous ludicrous conspiracy theories as to why the United States Department of Justice initiated a civil suit to charge two individuals who blatantly committed a criminal act.

Conspiracy theories of a Jewish American agenda to cuckold Malaysia into submitting into their demands against China do not make sense. If it were a Jewish American agenda, the charges would push Malaysia closer to China and the latter would welcome us with wide open arms and Mandarin oranges. Let us leave the conspiracy theories alone as they have no facts and legal basis.

Then you also have the usual racial and ultra religious charges as to why the DOJ initiated the charges. Sorry to break it to you fellas, but the money laundered was perpetrated by a Chinese and a Malay, helped by a Jewish bank and a Muslim Arab facilitator. Lucky for the Indian, he came in much later to take the helm of 1MDB, which is only implicated in the charge sheet as being the victim of money-laundering and plunder.

One must also remember the alleged crimes were committed in the United States of America, which does not take money-laundering lightly. Malaysians should allow the due process to take place. Thus, let us look at what exactly is money-laundering and what constitutes money-laundering -

a) Proceeds from illegal business.

b) Proceeds from corruption.

c) Money that has a conspiracy attached to it.

d) Dubious money transferred from dubious accounts originating from blacklisted offshore territories.

e) Money that has entered the United States banking system from shadow banks located in dubious and blacklisted offshore territories.

f) Money that has not been taxed from the country of origin.

g) Remittance of more than US dollar 10,000.00 that has a dubious explanation thus.

h) Any money or transaction that arouses suspicion relating to the source of the funds.

i) Money from extortion, insider trading and illegal gambling having gone through the US banking system can be considered money-laundering.

The jury is still out

If we are to translate the above with regards to the case involving Riza Aziz and Jho Low (yes, there are others, but considering these two are Malaysians and are at the centre of speculation of plunder and conspiracy regarding 1MDB we shall stick with these two characters) we can conclude that the only thing they are innocent of is that the proceeds remitted were not from illegal business.

As for the proceeds originating from corruption, the jury is still out. Therefore, we can safely ascertain and confirm that the money DOES have -

a) Conspiracy attached to it.

b) Remittance from dubious blacklisted offshore territories.

c) The use of the shadow banking system.

d) Amounts remitted more than US dollar 10,000.00.

All four which have aroused suspicion as to the source of the funds.

Furthermore, we can only assume at this juncture of time, that the United States authorities did not accept the explanation of the Know Your Client (KYC) process prior to opening a bank account in the United States. The Know Your Client process is a rigorous process where the bank has to confirm that the funds are not of criminal origin. It may take a few days to several weeks for a client to open an account that is sanctioned to hold more than US$500,000.00.

Furthermore, clients that are politically connected outside the United States are strictly scrutinised as the banks do not want to be involved in any form of corruption.

Before one asks why didn’t the United States stop the money from entering its system at the initial stages of the KYC, the authorities would have yellow flagged the accounts and proceed with a wait and see tactic to see how the funds were used.

However, according to the New York Times, the investigation from the Department of Justice only started in 2015 after the newspaper published an investigative piece reporting purchases of property and artwork that totalled US dollar 150 million to Riza Aziz and Jho Low.

Prior to this expose, Riza Aziz was in the spotlight for having financed, through his independent film company Red Granite Pictures Inc, the box office hit ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.

Allegedly, US dollar 155 million was transferred into Red Granite Picture Inc. in 2012, around the same time Red Granite Pictures had confirmed that they were financing the Wolf Of Wall Street and that they had signed Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio as the director and starring role, respectively.

Motion pictures are a big business and funds that total US dollar 155 million that were wired from a territory that is blacklisted by the US authorities, would have created some form of suspicion, if not back then but now.

Partying with A-List musicians and stars

If the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ had not created any suspicion back then, perhaps we can look at the numerous pictures of Jho Low partying with A-List musicians and silver screen stars that had circulated since 2009. Malaysians being human and sometimes aloof, would have speculated of how did this genius earn so much money to live this hedonistic lifestyle. You cannot blame them really.

What did not help matters for both Riza and Jho Low, (and which lends credence to the New York Times article) is in 2012, US dollar 11 million were purportedly wired from an account into the latter’s casino account in the Venetian Casino to pay off gambling debts that amounted to the same as amount that was wired.

The alleged wire was from an account that Red Granite owned to an account in Singapore named ‘Alsen Chance’. The origins of the funds that Red Granite used was from a BVI account owned by Aabar BVI. Thus the flow of the money, and which constitutes money-laundering is as follows -

Aabar BVI ——> Red Granite —-> Alsen Chance —> Venetian Casino

ie countries involved

Caribbean nation —> USA —> Singapore —> USA

This is called round tripping, where money is deposited in an offshore tax haven (Caribbean nation) and funnelled into the United States as an ‘investment’, rerouted out to Singapore to pay for a gambling debt, which would have been taxable if Red Granite had paid directly to the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. Yup, tax evasion by using a third party to pay is money-laundering in the United States.

Hitherto, there are three stages to money laundering -

a. Placement.

b. Layering.

c. Integration.

Layering is the process where the dubious money is placed with legitimate funds ie at the stated BVI accounts according to the DOJ charge sheet and the integration stage is where the money is funneled for the recepient to do so as he or she deems fit to spend. If we are to look at the companies involved and the flow of money, to the authorities that alone is money-laundering as Red Granite is suspected of layering funds.

Why is money-laundering a serious offence in the United States one may ask?

Since Sept 11 2001, the United States has been on a witch hunt on anyone misusing their financial organisations and system to bring in money to either finance terrorism or to clean money that has criminal origins. In layman terms, the United States government does not wish for it to be implicated in any form of being a haven where criminals get away with their crimes.

What are then the success rate of the United States government in dealing with money-laundering?

Open-ended question

This in itself is a very open-ended question and the verdict may go either way for or against the United States Government’s charges. If one were to look at history, if the United States government wants to implicate and charge you against any form of fraudulent and criminal enterprises, they will find a way to get you.

In fact the opposition in Malaysia can tell you that when one is fighting against the machinery of the government, you’d better be prepared to either fight for the long haul or give up.

Regardless of where and how Riza Aziz and Jho Low earned (or took) their money, the point is they were involved in money laundering. It may not be money laundering in Malaysia, but IT IS in the United States. This has nothing to do with politics, nor does it involve religion, race, Illuminati conspiracy theories and a Martian invasion, it involves an alleged crime. Money-laundering is a crime. Moreover, there is no point for any ONE party to divert the attention of Malaysians to 1MDB to try hide the fact that money-laundering did occur.

TARIQ ISMAIL is the founder of Facebook page Aura Merdeka and is the grandson of Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.