Treasure trove seized from ex-Malaysia PM worth up to $273 million

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick Lee, June 27, 2018

The raids on several properties linked to ex-PM Najib Razak netted 12,000 pieces
 of jewellery, bags containing almost $30 million in cash and hundreds of watches
and pairs of sunglasses (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)

A vast trove of valuables seized in raids on properties linked to Malaysia's scandal-mired former leader, including cash, jewellery and luxury handbags, are worth up to $273 million, police said Wednesday.

The searches, part of investigations into scandal-hit sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, netted 12,000 pieces of jewellery, bags containing almost $30 million in cash across 26 different currencies, more than 400 watches worth $19.3 million, and other high-end designer goods.

"I think this is the biggest seizure in Malaysian history," said Amar Singh, the police's head of commercial crime investigations, after officials completed the mammoth task of valuing all the items they uncovered in raids around Kuala Lumpur last month.

He said the items were worth between 910 million ringgit ($225 million) and 1.1 billion ringgit ($273 million).

The official salary of Najib Razak, the former premier, while in office was 22,827 ringgit ($5,670) a month.

Allegations of massive corruption were a major factor behind last month's shock election loss of Najib's long-ruling coalition to a reformist alliance headed by Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib and his cronies were accused of plundering billions of dollars from 1MDB to buy everything from US real estate to artworks. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

His luxury-loving wife Rosmah Mansor became a lightning rod for public anger due to her vast collection of handbags and jewels, and her reported love of overseas shopping trips.

The mind-boggling collection of luxury items listed by police will increase public anger at the former first couple, whose spendthrift ways came to symbolise the decadence and rot in the Barisan Nasional coalition which ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1957 until its ouster last month.

Malaysian police say the raids on properties linked to the former prime minister 

led to the biggest property seizure in the country's history (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)

Anger at allegations of graft swirling around Najib and his inner circle had become particularly acute in recent years, as many middle-class Malaysians increasingly struggled with stagnating wages and living standards.

Tiaras, sunglasses, watches

The items were seized in raids on six premises linked to Najib, including luxury apartments in Kuala Lumpur and his main residence in an upmarket part of the city.

The huge collection of jewellery included 1,400 necklaces, 2,200 rings and 14 tiaras. The most expensive item of jewellery was a necklace, which was estimated to be worth 6.4 million ringgit ($1.5 million), Amar said.

A total of 567 handbags were also seized, including 272 Hermes bags worth 51.3 million ringgit, police said, adding that the value of the other handbags was still being calculated.

A total of 423 watches worth 78 million ringgit were also discovered, along with 234 pairs of sunglasses.

It took officials five weeks, from May 21 to June 25, to count up the items and calculate their value, Amar said.

When items are uncovered in raids, police typically try to put a value on them on site, Amar said. But this was not possible with the Najib-linked searches due to the vast quantity of valuables.

"The next best option is to seal the items, to bring them back to a secure place and ensure that these items are not compromised," he said.

New Prime Minister Mahathir, who has just started his second stint as premier at the age of 92, has reopened investigations into 1MDB which were shut down by Najib, and has vowed the former leader will be charged.

Since their election loss, Najib and Rosmah have been questioned by anti-graft investigators over allegations that money linked to the state fund ended up in Najib's bank accounts.

The US Justice Department, which is seeking to recover items allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB cash in America, estimates that $4.5 billion was looted from the fund.

Vatican jails Italian priest for child porn

Yahoo – AFP, 23 June 2018

An Italian priest who served as a diplomat in the Holy See's Washington Embassy
has been sentenced to jail for five years by a Vatican court for downloading and
sharing child pornography

A Vatican court on Saturday jailed for five years an Italian priest who worked as a diplomat for the Holy See's Washington embassy, for possessing and sharing child pornography.

Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella pleaded guilty on Friday, the opening day of the court hearing, saying he had gone through a "personal crisis" and felt "useless" as a counsellor at the embassy.

The 51-year-old told the three lay Italian judges at the tiny courtroom in the Vatican City that he had started looking at child pornography online on Tumblr in July 2016 and exchanged pictures with other users.

The Vatican gendarmerie said more than 40 pornographic photos and videos, some showing sexual contact between adults and pre-pubescent children, were found on the priest's mobile phone.

The US State Department had told the Vatican last August that an embassy diplomat may have violated the law with child pornography pictures.

The Vatican did not answer an official request to lift his diplomatic immunity, State Department sources said, and the priest was recalled to Rome last September.

He was placed in custody in April after an inquiry had been opened.

Canada also issued an arrest warrant for Capella on suspicion of downloading child pornography from inside a church in the Ontario town of Windsor.

Faced with a growing number of cases worldwide and repeated criticism for the way the Catholic Church has handled the scandals, Pope Francis brought in new legislation in 2013 covering child sex abuse and pornography and sentences of up to 12 years for priests.

In one of the latest scandals, the Chilean church has been rocked by accusations of wide-scale covering up of child abuse during the 1980s and 1990s.

Last Wednesday it emerged that the former archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, had been removed from the ministry following allegations he sexually abused a teenager nearly 50 years ago when he was a priest in New York.

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Audi boss arrested in diesel probe

Yahoo – AFP, June 18, 2018

Stadler's arrest is the most high-profile yet in the dieselgate crisis (AFP Photo/
CHRISTOF STACHE)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler has been arrested in connection with parent company Volkswagen's "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal, German prosecutors said Monday.

The dramatic development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler's home after charging him with fraud and the falsification of documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.

Prosecutors said the arrest was justified because of the "risk of concealment of evidence".

Audi confirmed the arrest to AFP, declining to give further details.

"For Mr Stadler, the presumption of innocence continues to apply," a spokesman said in a statement.

Stadler's arrest is the most high-profile yet in the dieselgate crisis, which started when the Volkswagen group admitted in 2015 to equipping some 11 million diesels worldwide with "defeat devices" designed to dupe pollution tests.

VW's luxury subsidiary Audi has long faced suspicions that its engineers developed the software used in the scam.

Audi's former head of engine development was taken into custody in September 2017.

German authorities earlier this month ordered the recall of some 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 cars across Europe to remove illegal emissions control software, using a different technique however than the one at the heart of dieselgate.

Former VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn stepped down soon after the scandal broke in September 2015, while successor Matthias Mueller was hastily replaced earlier this year.

Both are suspected of knowing earlier than they have so far admitted about the cheating, meaning they may have failed in their duty to inform investors in the car giant about the financial risks.

US prosecutors also indicted Winterkorn last month, saying he knew of the company's emissions cheating as early as May 2014 but decided to continue.

Present boss Herbert Diess has been accused of knowing about diesel cheating before it became public -- an allegation rejected by the firm last month.

The scandal has so far cost the VW group more than 25 billion euros ($29 billion) in buybacks, fines and compensation, and the company remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

Former Trump campaign chief sent to jail after bail revoked

Yahoo – AFP, 15 June 2018

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, has been
ordered to jail pending trial

A US federal judge sent Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, to jail on Friday ahead of his trial on money laundering, tax and bank fraud charges.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked Manafort's bail over claims he was tampering with witnesses in the case against him brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia.

Manafort, 69, had been under house detention while awaiting trial later this year in Washington and in Virginia.

"You have abused the trust placed in you six months ago," The Washington Post quoted Jackson as telling Manafort. "The government motion will be granted and the defendant will be detained."

Manafort is the first former member of Trump's presidential campaign to be jailed in connection with the Mueller investigation.

Mueller filed new obstruction of justice charges last week against Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty to the multiple counts against him.

The new indictment came four days after prosecutors said Manafort had tried to contact two witnesses in his money laundering and bank fraud case via Russian fixer Konstantin Kilimnik to persuade them to make certain representations to investigators.

Kilimnik, a former army-trained linguist with alleged ties to Russian intelligence, was included in an updated indictment of Manafort that accused both of witness tampering.

It took the number of people indicted by the 13-month-old investigation by Mueller to 20, with three companies also facing charges.

'Very unfair'

Trump has denounced the Mueller probe as a political "witch hunt" and denied there was any collusion with Russia by members of his election campaign.

Trump said Friday that the ruling that sent Manafort to jail was a "tough sentence" and "very unfair."

"Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns," Trump tweeted.

"Didn't know Manafort was the head of the Mob," he said. "Very unfair!"

Speaking to reporters earlier, Trump sought to play down Manafort's influence on the campaign, saying he "worked for me for a very short period of time.

"He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something?" he said.

The Manafort case focuses on his work between 2004 and 2014 in Ukraine for pro-Russia politicians including former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Kilimnik worked with Manafort in Ukraine during that time, and during the 2016 election they were reportedly in regular contact.

According to a Washington court filing earlier this week, Manafort contacted Kilimnik recently to get his help to influence two unnamed people -- said to be European-based public relations consultants -- in their testimony to Mueller on the so-called Hapsburg Group.

The Hapsburg Group were onetime European politicians Manafort allegedly secretly paid more than two million euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Yanukovych in 2012-2013. The group included one unidentified former European chancellor.

Thai king granted full ownership of crown billions

Yahoo – AFP, June 16, 2018

Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn inherited one of the world's great fortunes when he
ascended the Thai throne following the October 2016 death of his father (AFP Photo/
Panupong CHANGCHAI)

Thailand's king has been granted full ownership of the palace's multi-billion dollar assets under a law passed last year, according to a rare "explanatory note" published by the financial arm of the powerful but secretive monarchy.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn inherited one of the world's great fortunes when he ascended the Thai throne following the October 2016 death of his father, who ruled for seven decades.

Analysts say the Chakris are one of the world's richest royal dynasties, with estimates varying between $30-60 billion, although the monarchy does not publicly declare its wealth and is shielded from scrutiny by a draconian lese majeste law.

Most of the money is controlled by the opaque Crown Property Bureau (CPB), a vast portfolio that includes massive property ownership and investments in major companies.

But last July the Thai junta amended a royal property law for the first time in 69 years to give Vajiralongkorn full control over the CPB.

It is one of several steps taken by Vajiralongkorn to increase his personal control over the palace bureaucracy and its wealth since taking the throne.

The amendment means "all 'Crown Property Assets' are to be transferred and revert to the ownership of His Majesty, so that they may be administered and managed at His Majesty's discretion," according to a note featured prominently on the front page of the CPB's website.

The document was not dated and the CPB, which rarely grants interviews, could not be reached for further comment.

The note clarified that all of the CPB's shareholdings will also "be held in the name of His Majesty."

The CPB has major investments in some of Thailand's largest companies, such as Siam Commercial Bank and Siam Cement Company.

The note also said that previously tax exempt CPB assets will now be liable to taxation "in line with His Majesty's wishes."

Public discussion of the monarchy's actions remains taboo due to Thailand's lese majeste law, which punishes any perceived criticism with up to 15 years per offence.

All media based in Thailand must self-censor when reporting on the monarchy to avoid violating the lese majeste law.

Trump widens the cracks in world order's foundations

Yahoo – AFP, Aurélia END, June 9, 2018

Leaders of the G7 participate in a working session of the G7 Summit in La Malbaie,
Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018; US President Donald Trump has shown skepticism
and downright hostility toward multilateral institutions (AFP Photo/Ludovic MARIN)

Quebec City (AFP) - For decades, multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization and Group of Seven were widely accepted by Western governments as the best way to shore up world order.

Now, with Donald Trump in the White House and his "America First" foreign policy echoed in rise of nationalist and populist movements in Europe, the cracks in the concrete are growing ever wider.

Whether circumventing the WTO by imposing tariffs on its signatories, withholding funds from the UN or going it alone at an ongoing G7 summit in Canada, Trump has shown his disdain for organizations where American leadership was once a given.

"What worries me most is the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged, quite surprisingly not by the usual suspects but by its main architect and guarantor, the US," European Council President Donald Tusk said in Quebec on Friday as the rest of the G7 awaited the arrival of Trump.

The US president's skepticism and in some cases hostility towards international institutions was evident throughout his electoral campaign, even at one state declaring the NATO military alliance "obsolete."

'Very unfair'

While his views of NATO have softened -- at least in public -- since he took power in January last year, he has accused the WTO of having been "a disaster for us" and "very unfair" in its policing of global trade.

Similar arguments were used to justify the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, a painstakingly negotiated agreement that had been signed by every country bar Syria and Nicaragua by the time Trump announced his decision a year ago.

Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned that the world body's criticism of the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital will lead to a reduction in its funding.

Around the same time that the United Nations was created in 1945 -- an organization headquartered in New York and which relies on Washington for the lion's share of its funding -- other multinational organizations also began taking root.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which began work in 1948, was the precursor to the modern-day WTO, which now has more than 160 members.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank both emerged from an agreement signed in 1944 at Bretton Woods in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire and soon became the main planks of the international finance system.

By tradition, the World Bank is led by an American while a European is at the helm of the IMF.

Multilateral institutions also began taking root on the other side of the Atlantic, including the Brussels-based NATO alliance which includes the United States and nearly all of Europe. Its birth came at a conference in Washington in 1949.

Its creation was followed soon after by the European Coal and Steel Community which initially included only six member nations but later morphed into the European Union, which is now a bulging club of 28 countries.

Brexit looms

That number should be reduced to 27 within the next 12 months when Britain leaves and the resentments towards the EU which prompted the British public to vote for Brexit are widespread.

Italy's new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who made his international entrance at the G7 summit, was propelled into office after the Eurosceptic Five Star movement joined a right-wing coalition in Rome that has evoked comparisons with Trump's rise.

French President Emmanuel Macron is among those who insist that multinational institutions are the best way to address grievances in the era of globalization as long as the bodies adapt and reform.

Ella Kokotsis of Toronto University's Munk School of Global Affairs said that Ronald Reagan also clashed with his peers at the start of his tenure in the White House four decades ago but he soon made common ground with his fellow Western leaders at the height of the Cold War.

But the differences appear more profound this time round.

"They (the other G7 leaders in the 1980s) were able to integrate Ronald Reagan into the fold quite quickly and he bought into the views of the rest of his G7 counterparts," she told AFP.

"Here we are seeing a different mood -- it's very unpredictable with Trump."

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California voters remove US rape case judge

Yahoo – AFP, June 6, 2018

Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled by a majority of voters in Santa
Clara County, south of San Francisco, during primary elections held in the state
June 5, 2018 (AFP Photo/Gregg Newton)

Los Angeles (AFP) - A US judge who came under seething criticism for sentencing a Stanford University student to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman has been ousted from office by voters in California.

Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled by a majority of voters in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, during primary elections held in the state on Tuesday.

Persky, who has served on the bench for 15 years, is the first California judge to be recalled since 1932.

He set off a storm of outrage in 2016 after he handed down what was perceived as a far too lenient sentence in the sexual assault trial of Stanford student Brock Turner.

Turner, who was 19 at the time, was arrested after two students discovered him lying on top of an unconscious 22-year-old woman near a dumpster.

He denied having assaulted the woman and said they had consensual sex after meeting at a fraternity party where there was heavy drinking.

A jury, however, rejected his defense and he was convicted of three felonies.

The case drew international attention after the victim -- identified as "Emily Doe" -- read an emotionally charged 12-page letter at the sentencing, telling Turner he had taken away "my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today."

The letter, which went viral, threw the spotlight on the problem of rape and sexual assault on US college campuses and galvanized women's rights groups.

The case also sparked a national debate about judicial independence.

"This is a sad day for the California judiciary," LaDoris Cordell, a former Santa Clara County judge who was active in the campaign against the recall, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The voters' message to judges, she added, was that "if they don't go along with popular opinion... they can lose their job."

However, supporters of the recall said Persky's ouster was a clear message that perpetrators of such crimes would no longer get impunity.

"We're in the middle of a historic moment, when women across all sectors of society are standing up and saying, 'enough is enough'," Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who led the campaign for Persky's recall, told local media.

"And I think there is a sort of national reckoning with the fact that women aren't going to experience equality as long as we're subject to high rates of sexual violence and sexual harassment."

Billionaire conservative US donor David Koch retires

Yahoo – AFP, June 5, 2018

David Koch, pictured in 2011, will retire due to "declining health" (AFP
Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

New York (AFP) - Powerful US political donor David Koch, who with his brother Charles built an industrial empire and became kingmakers of conservative American politics, will retire from his company and political activities for health reasons, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by AFP.

In this message to employees of Koch Industries on Monday, Charles Koch said David, 78, has been in "declining health" since 2016 and "continues to deteriorate," so he "is no longer able to get involved in management of the company and other organizations."

"We are deeply saddened by this as we miss David's insightful questions and his many contributions to Koch Industries," the letter said.

The conglomerate, based in Wichita, Kansas, which includes chemicals, energy and finance, helped him build a fortune exceeding $50 billion, according to Forbes.

The brothers used their wealth to fund dozens of political organizations, causes and candidates, including founding the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity to promote tax cuts, reduced regulation and fiscal responsibility from the government.

They played a pivotal role in the rise of the Tea Party movement, which some credit as a forerunner to the emergence of Donald Trump's candidacy.

However, the Koch brothers, who are supporters of free trade, also are funding a campaign against Trump's protectionist policies and tariffs on key products like steel and aluminum.

Belgian police detain 13 in tennis match-fixing probe

Yahoo – AFP, Jun 5, 2018

Belgian prosecutors said the tennis matches involved were on the low-level
Futures and Challenger circuits (AFP Photo/Timothy A. CLARY)

Brussels (AFP) - Belgian police on Tuesday held 13 people in an investigation into match-fixing in tennis, prosecutors said, barely a month after a major independent report warned of a "tsunami" of corruption in the lower levels of the sport.

Officers swooped on 21 addresses in Belgium while simultaneous raids were launched on properties in the US, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands as part of an international probe into an Armenian-Belgian criminal network suspected of bribing players to throw games.

Belgian prosecutors said the matches involved were on the low-level Futures and Challenger circuits, away from the gaze of television coverage and where prize money is low enough that players are susceptible to backhanders.

"This judicial investigation showed that an Armenian-Belgian criminal organisation actively would have bribed professional tennis players from 2014 to the present day in order to obtain a pre-arranged match result with the aim of betting on these fixed matches based on insider information, thereby fraudulently boosting winnings," the prosecutors said in a statement.

The suspects mostly fit the same profile, prosecutors said -- no income, no job and facing financial problems. They would be given money to bet on lower-division matches where prize money was around $5,000 to $15,000.

"These tournaments are usually not filmed, which would make the players easier to corrupt and the organisers of fixed matches generate a lot of cash, making themselves guilty of match fixing, corruption, money laundering, participation in the activities of a criminal organisation," the prosecutors said.

In April, the Independent Review of Integrity in Tennis report said the lower levels of the sport were engulfed in betting-related corruption.

The report said the problems stemmed from too many players in the likes of the Futures and Challenger circuits not earning enough to make a living, coupled with the rise of online betting.

There are around 15,000 professional tennis players but only the top 250 women and the top 350 men even manage to break even before coaching costs, lawyer Adam Lewis, who chaired the review panel, warned in April.

Defence ministry will compensate technical staff made ill by carcinogenic paints

DutchNews, June 4, 2018

Photo: Ministry of Defence 

The defence ministry said on Monday that it will give financial compensation to hundreds of people who became ill after using highly carcinogenic paints. 

A deal has been worked out with the military unions and defence ministry workers who developed cancer and other ailments are now able to claim up to €40,000 for immaterial damage and €3,850 towards medical costs. 

‘The defence ministry has failed. I am sorry but I cannot turn back the clock,’ junior defence minister Barbara Visser told MPs. 

Last week it emerged that the government is liable for the health issues which hundreds of armed forces engineers have reported after being exposed to paint containing high levels of toxic Chromium 6. 

They had been involved in maintaining American Nato equipment at five bases between 1984 and 2006. 

The research, by the public health institute RIVM, showed that the defence ministry was aware of the health problems since 1973 but had had not shared this with doctors or soldiers. The RIVM began its research in 2014 after the scandal became public. 

In addition, the safety standards at the five locations where the equipment was maintained were not up to scratch. ‘The defence ministry’s prevention and care strategies did not meet the regulations,’ the RIVM report stated. 

More than 350 former defence workers have so far come forward to make a claim against the ministry.

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