The revelations of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the illegal siphoning of funds from 1MDB shatters to smithereens all the denials that have been made by 1MDB itself, the Malaysian attorney-general (AG) and the Malaysian government.

The DOJ’s findings confirm the asininity of the statements made by Malaysian public officials ever since the scandal broke to staunchly defend 1MDB and Prime Minister Najib Razak. Even now cabinet minister Salleh Said Keruak insists idiotically that the RM2.6 billion “donation” to Najib is a separate matter, and maintains that it came from the Saudi Arabia royal family.

But who believes that any more?

Sarawak Report and Wall Street Journal have been telling us for the longest time that the RM2.6 billion actually came from 1MDB through a shell company, but the Malaysian government has been refuting that. Now the DOJ confirms that it’s so.

It tells us that US$731 million siphoned out of 1MDB went into the bank account of ‘Malaysian Official 1’ - US$20 million from Good Star Limited via a Saudi prince in 2011; US$30 million from Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (British Virgin Islands) in 2012; and a whopping US$681 million from Tanore Finance Corporation in 2013.

Who, do you think, is ‘Malaysian Official 1’?

The DOJ does not name him in its civil suit to seize the assets involved in money laundering in the US, but it says that the AG of Malaysia conducted an inquiry into the US$681 million payment and confirmed that the money was transferred into the personal account of Malaysian Official 1 between Aug 22, 2013, and April 10, 2013.

Isn’t that Najib?

The DOJ also said the Malaysian AG declared that in August 2013, US$620 million was returned by Malaysian Official 1. It added: “The Malaysian Attorney-General ultimately characterised the payment of US$681 million as a ‘personal donation to Malaysian Official 1 from the Saudi royal family’.”

For crying out loud, it has to be Najib!

And US$681 million at that time would have amounted to about RM2.6 billion. So can anyone blame us now for thinking that the money that went into Najib’s bank account is the same money that came from Tanore Finance Corporation which Sarawak Report, Wall Street Journal and now the DOJ say came from 1MDB? Can anyone blame us now for not believing that it came from the Saudi royal family?

How is the Malaysian government going to hide from the DOJ’s findings now? It is the result of investigations conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies. It is not based on speculation.

Is the Malaysian government now going to accuse the US of attempting to topple a legitimately elected government? More importantly, is it still going to hide the truth from the Malaysian people?

Conspiracy to cover up

Sadly, many of the people entrusted with the administration and well-being of the country have failed us miserably either by not doing their jobs as they should or by covering up the truth.

The various cabinet ministers, like Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Salleh Said Keruak, Azalina Othman, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Khairy Jamaluddin, Mahdzir Khalid, have tried to mislead us into thinking that the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion scandals were deceptions conjured by traitors.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, Hasan Arifin, deleted sentences in the PAC’s report on 1MDB without getting the agreement of the committee’s members. These sentences referred to Good Star Limited, which has now been exposed by the DOJ as belonging to Low Taek Jho a.k.a. Jho Low.

The DOJ reveals that US$1.03 billion was diverted from 1MDB to Good Star Limited. Some US$20 million was subsequently channelled into Malaysian Official 1’s account in 2011.

For deleting those crucial sentences, Hasan deserves to be excoriated. As fellow PAC member Tony Pua put it when he exposed Hasan’s action, “He lied to the committee, suppressed evidence, covered up wrongdoing and obstructed investigations into 1MDB.”

Singapore has since followed the lead taken by the US and seized assets related to 1MDB fund flows there. Of the S$240 million worth of assets seized, half belong to Jho Low and his immediate family.

Najib has much to answer for when it comes to Low, the latter has gone on record to say that he was occasionally an unofficial adviser to 1MDB. Given that the findings by the US and Singapore discredit Low, how could Najib have ever taken his advice on board? Furthermore, what is the nature of the advice? Did it extend to embezzlement?

Indeed, the findings vindicate the efforts of MP Pua to doggedly expose the 1MDB scandal. They also vindicate Sarawak Report’s untiring pursuit of the truth about 1MDB for the good of the Malaysian people despite threats against its editor, Clare Rewcastle Brown, and vilification from the Malaysian government.

Now we can also safely assume that 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy has kept the truth from us by steadfastly maintaining that 1MDB had committed no wrongdoing. In his position, he cannot but have knowledge of what his predecessors were up to. We can believe that he was not part of the embezzlement scheme, but if he knew about the scam and tried to hide it, he would be an accessory after the fact.

Now, too, we can safely assume that the Malaysian AG, Mohamed Apandi Ali, has been doubly remiss in his conclusion that 1MDB had committed no wrongdoing and that Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” was legal and above board. He even ordered Najib’s case to be closed.

Well, it’s obvious now that he was too hasty. Why was he not interested in investigating further? Why did he refuse to seek the cooperation of financial agencies outside Malaysia? For his lack of due diligence alone, he should be sacked. He has no business heading the country’s justice agency if he cannot be relied upon to do his job well - and justly.

Donation for Red Granite, too?

It is highly significant that Najib’s own stepson has been named by the DOJ as a beneficiary of the misappropriated funds. The DOJ names Riza Aziz and refers to him as a “close relative of a senior 1MDB official”. That reinforces the identity of ‘Malaysian Official 1’.

Riza and his film company, Red Granite, have allegedly received US$155 million from Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, the shell company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands to channel funds from 1MDB. He used part of it to finance the making of the movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ that went on to earn more than US$400 million in 2013 alone.

“Neither 1MDB nor the Malaysian people ever saw a penny of profit from that film,” said the DOJ. Damn right.

Pressure should now be put on Najib to account for the truth about 1MDB. He owes Malaysians that. The money misappropriated belongs to Malaysians. But at the moment, the denials continue to come from the government and the mouths of Najib’s lackeys.

Najib himself is seemingly pleased that the suit taken out by the DOJ is civil and not criminal, and he tells us not to “make assumptions” until the legal process is completed.

That may be so, but the repercussions of the DOJ’s revelations will hit Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, because Riza is her son. It’s all now out in the open that he got money that came from 1MDB, it’s not speculation any more. And even though Riza tried to make his bacon halal by telling the DOJ that the money he received was “a gift” from Aabar, the fact remains that the money was ill-gotten in the first place.

How aptly named Aabar is. It sounds like aba, which means father. The connection to Riza and the fact that ‘Malaysian Official 1’ was mentioned 32 times in the DOJ’s document will not bode well for the prime minister. We shouldn’t be too surprised if the shit hits Najib’s fan ultimately. The question is, would he be able to deflect it like before?

KEE THUAN CHYE is the author of the bestsellers ‘Unbelievably Stupid!’ and ‘Unbelievably Stupid Too!’