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1MDB is the most bizarre scandals I’ve ever heard. A 27-year-old convinces the Prime Minister of Malaysia to let him manage country’s sovereign wealth fund, and

1MDB is the most bizarre scandals I’ve ever heard. A 27-year-old convinces the Prime Minister of Malaysia to let him manage country’s sovereign wealth fund, and then he proceeds to fritter almost $2 billion away throwing multi-million dollar parties and funding the Wolf of Wall Street. How did he get away with all of it for so long?

arcanus 8y ago
> How did he get away with all of it for so long? Corruption. He fritter'ed a great deal of this money to precisely the same Prime Minister who selected him. This wasn't unique, either. This sort of corruption is much more pervasive than most people believe. In China many of the top party officials are billionaires. Vladimir Putin is widely believed to have massively enriched himself during his reign. Frankly, the biggest surprise is that the corruption in this case was caught.
- stevehawk 8y ago
  "massively enriched" is a bit of an understatement. He's believed to be one of the wealthiest people in the world and it's why Obama put those sanctions on him and his buddies.
  - wnevets 8y ago
    He's been robbing his country blind to make him and his allies extremely rich.
    - sifoobar 8y ago
      Source? As opposed to US politicians like the Bushes, Clintons and Obamas? Or any of the countless corrupt puppet dictators that the US installed around the world? Listen, I know they're pushing really hard for a war right now; but unless you're right up there at the top of the pyramid, war is hell. The only thing that will ever get us out of this hole is truth, and truth starts with not spreading BS.
      - why_only_15 8y ago
        The Bushes/Clintons/Obamas make their money from because people want to hear what they have to say (e.g. speeches, books), not because they steal money from the public coffers.
        a11595 8y ago
        I'm too lazy to grab the links, but take a look at when Bill did his speeches and how much he got paid, and when Hillary voted and pushed for legislation greatly benefiting the people paying him for those speeches. It's some crazy shit.
        sifoobar 8y ago
        Right :) The Clinton's Uranium deal with Rosatom is a nice example of how this works; of course you can't just give politicians piles of money, it needs to come with a bedtime story for the voters.
        dralley 8y ago
        You've done zero research about this, then. A Canadian company owned uranium reserves and wanted to sell the ownership of them to Rosatom. Not the physical resources, which cannot leave the country, just the ownership. This still requires government oversight, so 8 different agencies had to sign off on it. All agencies did, including the state department. Hillary was not involved in the decision to approve the sale, apart from in charge of one of the many departments overseeing it.
        mikeyouse 8y ago
        One last bit that people ignore -- The Clinton Foundation Initiative is a Public Charity (as opposed to a private foundation like the DJT Foundation) managed by a team of professionals subject to regular audits. Everyone one of their financial reports is posted on their website (by law), it would be public knowledge and it would be illegal if the Clintons benefitted financially in any way from the activities of the charity. They didn't. There are reams of pages of IRS guidance around private inurement in 501c groups (aka what was going on at the Trump Family Foundation -- a different type of nonprofit charity). You can safely ignore anyone who claims that the Clintons took money from anyone if they're claiming that money donated to their charity ends up in their pockets. They don't know what they're talking about.
- rajacombinator 8y ago
  In America, our politicians are orders of magnitude more clever about their self enrichment.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    If you can live the life of great wealth, without actually amassing said wealth, why bother?
    - village-idiot 8y ago
      I’m actually fine with public seevants living decently if it was in line with the quality of our government. Given that our government is literally off right now, you can guess my current opinion.
- seanlinmt 8y ago
  All because of a whistlerblower. http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/justo-world-needs-good-whistleblower-story http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/justo-world-needs-good... The world needs more whistlerblowers. Or at least better tools and protection for those who plan to do it
ReptileMan 8y ago
The prime minister profited handsomely from this affair. Probably a billion or two himself.
baybal2 8y ago
> How did he get away with all of it for so long? By claiming that all of that was legal. Plainly and simple, until some prosecutor does not walk over facts and not file a charge, no crime is being prosecuted. In such cases, the very reason for starting a process is prosecutorial discretion. (Anti)Nepotism laws are notoriously hard to act upon: unless somebody got caught red handed (taped, stinged,) any accusation of appointment beyond merit is just a lot of speculation and rhetoric. The same way ... Boston Consulting Group, and PWC have decades long record of employing 20 something scions of officials for well paid senior positions in every major country you can think of.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  > any accusation of appointment beyond merit is just a lot of speculation and rhetoric. Juxtaposed with: > Boston Consulting Group, and PWC have decades long record of employing 20 something scions of officials for well paid senior positions in every major country you can think of. Asks for some citation or proof.
  - hirsin 8y ago
    There's a decent moneystuff article about how this is assumed to happen (with email evidence) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-09-21/bad-interns-and-generous-unicorns https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-09-21/bad-in...
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      Neither PWC or BCG are named.
      - dcow 8y ago
        I think you missed the point. GGP was saying it’s hard to prove legally or otherwise in specific cases despite it obviously happening at scale. The point was not that when you look at the trends it’s hard to prove. The juxtaposition was intentional.
sleepyhead 8y ago
No that is not the case. It was a corruption scandal managed by the prime minister. Jho Low was "just" the guy who implemented it (and profited greatly from it). Malaysia is a very corrupt country and the PM and other top officials likely has many other schemes to enrich themselves.
supercanuck 8y ago
Coincidently, The prime miniser of Malaysia somehow increases his bank account to the tune of 700m during the same period.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  Didn’t he just get arrested for this?
chriscappuccio 8y ago
This was actually the plot of Zoolander 2!

arcanus 8y ago

> How did he get away with all of it for so long? Corruption. He fritter'ed a great deal of this money to precisely the same Prime Minister who selected him. This wasn't unique, either. This sort of corruption is much more pervasive than most people believe. In China many of the top party officials are billionaires. Vladimir Putin is widely believed to have massively enriched himself during his reign. Frankly, the biggest surprise is that the corruption in this case was caught.

stevehawk 8y ago
"massively enriched" is a bit of an understatement. He's believed to be one of the wealthiest people in the world and it's why Obama put those sanctions on him and his buddies.
- wnevets 8y ago
  He's been robbing his country blind to make him and his allies extremely rich.
  - sifoobar 8y ago
    Source? As opposed to US politicians like the Bushes, Clintons and Obamas? Or any of the countless corrupt puppet dictators that the US installed around the world? Listen, I know they're pushing really hard for a war right now; but unless you're right up there at the top of the pyramid, war is hell. The only thing that will ever get us out of this hole is truth, and truth starts with not spreading BS.
    - why_only_15 8y ago
      The Bushes/Clintons/Obamas make their money from because people want to hear what they have to say (e.g. speeches, books), not because they steal money from the public coffers.
      - a11595 8y ago
        I'm too lazy to grab the links, but take a look at when Bill did his speeches and how much he got paid, and when Hillary voted and pushed for legislation greatly benefiting the people paying him for those speeches. It's some crazy shit.
      - sifoobar 8y ago
        Right :) The Clinton's Uranium deal with Rosatom is a nice example of how this works; of course you can't just give politicians piles of money, it needs to come with a bedtime story for the voters.
        dralley 8y ago
        You've done zero research about this, then. A Canadian company owned uranium reserves and wanted to sell the ownership of them to Rosatom. Not the physical resources, which cannot leave the country, just the ownership. This still requires government oversight, so 8 different agencies had to sign off on it. All agencies did, including the state department. Hillary was not involved in the decision to approve the sale, apart from in charge of one of the many departments overseeing it.
        mikeyouse 8y ago
        One last bit that people ignore -- The Clinton Foundation Initiative is a Public Charity (as opposed to a private foundation like the DJT Foundation) managed by a team of professionals subject to regular audits. Everyone one of their financial reports is posted on their website (by law), it would be public knowledge and it would be illegal if the Clintons benefitted financially in any way from the activities of the charity. They didn't. There are reams of pages of IRS guidance around private inurement in 501c groups (aka what was going on at the Trump Family Foundation -- a different type of nonprofit charity). You can safely ignore anyone who claims that the Clintons took money from anyone if they're claiming that money donated to their charity ends up in their pockets. They don't know what they're talking about.
rajacombinator 8y ago
In America, our politicians are orders of magnitude more clever about their self enrichment.
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
  If you can live the life of great wealth, without actually amassing said wealth, why bother?
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    I’m actually fine with public seevants living decently if it was in line with the quality of our government. Given that our government is literally off right now, you can guess my current opinion.
seanlinmt 8y ago
All because of a whistlerblower. http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/justo-world-needs-good-whistleblower-story http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/justo-world-needs-good... The world needs more whistlerblowers. Or at least better tools and protection for those who plan to do it

ReptileMan 8y ago

The prime minister profited handsomely from this affair. Probably a billion or two himself.

baybal2 8y ago

> How did he get away with all of it for so long? By claiming that all of that was legal. Plainly and simple, until some prosecutor does not walk over facts and not file a charge, no crime is being prosecuted. In such cases, the very reason for starting a process is prosecutorial discretion. (Anti)Nepotism laws are notoriously hard to act upon: unless somebody got caught red handed (taped, stinged,) any accusation of appointment beyond merit is just a lot of speculation and rhetoric. The same way ... Boston Consulting Group, and PWC have decades long record of employing 20 something scions of officials for well paid senior positions in every major country you can think of.

jacquesm 8y ago
> any accusation of appointment beyond merit is just a lot of speculation and rhetoric. Juxtaposed with: > Boston Consulting Group, and PWC have decades long record of employing 20 something scions of officials for well paid senior positions in every major country you can think of. Asks for some citation or proof.
- hirsin 8y ago
  There's a decent moneystuff article about how this is assumed to happen (with email evidence) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-09-21/bad-interns-and-generous-unicorns https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-09-21/bad-in...
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    Neither PWC or BCG are named.
    - dcow 8y ago
      I think you missed the point. GGP was saying it’s hard to prove legally or otherwise in specific cases despite it obviously happening at scale. The point was not that when you look at the trends it’s hard to prove. The juxtaposition was intentional.

sleepyhead 8y ago

No that is not the case. It was a corruption scandal managed by the prime minister. Jho Low was "just" the guy who implemented it (and profited greatly from it). Malaysia is a very corrupt country and the PM and other top officials likely has many other schemes to enrich themselves.

supercanuck 8y ago

Coincidently, The prime miniser of Malaysia somehow increases his bank account to the tune of 700m during the same period.

village-idiot 8y ago
Didn’t he just get arrested for this?

chriscappuccio 8y ago

This was actually the plot of Zoolander 2!