Malaysia

see corruption, trump, emoluments

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accusations are confession/ projection:

an 1 24

Trump took millions from China, Saudi Arabia, other foreign governments as POTUS: report - Alternet.org

badash

while serving as President of the United States, Donald Trump’s businesses accepted millions of dollars from numerous foreign governments, including China and Saudi Arabia – the very acts House Republicans have baselessly alleged Joe Biden performed as Vice President and as a private citizen before being elected President, despite having provided no actual proof.

“Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China,” The New York Times reported Thursday. The paper calls it “concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him.”

The Wall Street Journal adds that the “report, underpinned by documents provided to House investigators by the accounting firm Mazars USA, offers a fuller picture of how Trump’s businesses benefited during his presidency as foreign officials may have tried to curry favor with Trump.”

In a break with tradition, as President, Donald Trump’s first foreign trip was to Saudi Arabia (video below), in May of 2017. One month earlier, Trump met with China’s President Xi at Mar-a-Lago. Ivanka Trump received patents from China that same day.

The 156-page report, “White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump,” was produced by the House Democrats on the Oversight Committee under Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor. He calls the findings and conclusions in the report “astounding,” and says “they demand urgent action by the Congress and by the American people.”

The Journal offers staggering details from the report.

“Hundreds of pages of expenses seen by the Journal include at least $210,000 in real estate and lodging fees by Saudi Arabia in 2018, the same year Trump publicly doubted U.S. intelligence assessments that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi,” the WSJ writes. “And a few months earlier, a Saudi delegation paid $2,000 for coffee table flowers and towers of cookies at the same hotel.”

“Newly disclosed receipts also show that Hainan Airlines Holding, which then had connections to China’s leadership, incurred $195,662 in charges at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas during a 14-month period beginning days before Trump was elected in 2016,” the Journal adds. “Malaysia paid for a $10,000-per-night suite in Trump’s Washington hotel in September 2017 for then-Prime Minister Najib Razak while he was under a U.S. investigation for his role in a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal that ultimately helped topple his government. Malaysia’s spending caused a 70% jump in average nightly room revenue at Trump’s Washington hotel compared with other nights that month, the report said.”

Ranking Member Raskin writes in the report: “By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief.”

“Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution forbids the President to accept money payments or gifts ‘of any kind whatever’ from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains ‘the Consent of the Congress’ to do so,” he observes. “Yet Donald Trump, while holding the office of president, used his business entities to pocket millions of dollars from foreign states and royalty and never once went to Congress to seek its consent. This report sets forth the records showing foreign government money—and all the spoils from royals we can find—pouring into hotels and buildings that the President continued to own during his presidency, all in direct violation of the Constitutional prohibition.”

Watch video of Trump being honored by Saudi Arabia during his first foreign trip below or at this link.

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11 22 an ah

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised that if he won, there would be a strict separation between his businesses and his political activities. But according to reporting in the New York Times, foreign officials from six different countries “spent more than $750,000” at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. “when they were seeking to influence his administration, renting rooms for more than $10,000 per night.”

Times journalists Luke Broadwater and Eric Lipton, in an article published by the Times on Monday, November 14, report, “The governments of Malaysia,Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China spent more money than previously known at the Trump International Hotel at crucial times in 2017 and 2018 for those countries’ relations with the United States, according to the documents, which were obtained by the House Oversight Committee and released on Monday.”

The foreign officials, according to Broadwater and Lipton, were big spenders.

“The Malaysian prime minister, for instance, hired a $1500 personal trainer during his stay at the Trump hotel in 2017,” the Times journalists note. “The Saudi Ministry of Defense rented several suites, costing $10,500 each, with rooms reserved under the name ‘His Excellency.’ Qatari officials spent more than $300,000 there in the weeks leading up to a meeting with Mr. Trump in 2018."

Broadwater and Lipton add, “The documents build on the public record of how Mr. Trump’s hotel brought in millions during his presidency from foreign governments. The Oversight Committee has previously estimated that the hotel received more than $3.75 million from foreign governments from 2017 to 2020, raising concerns about possible violations of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause.”

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Oversight Committee, told the Times that the documents “sharply call into question the extent to which President Trump was guided by his personal financial interest while in office rather than the best interests of the American people.”

“It paints an extremely troubling picture,” Maloney commented to the Times.

Broadwater and Lipton report, “The (House Oversight) Committee disclosed the latest documents as it released a letter from Ms. Maloney to the National Archives seeking additional documents about the Trump hotel and communications with foreign governments. The National Archives confirmed on Monday that it had received the letter. Ms. Maloney said the additional documents were needed to ‘determine whether former President Trump distorted U.S. foreign policy to serve his own financial interests at the expense of the American people and in violation of his oath of office.’”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/08/doj-charges-gop-lobbyist-elliott-broidy-428186

the Department of Justice unveiled a charge of illicit lobbying against former Republican National Committee deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy on Thursday.

The government’s charging document, which builds on the August charging of a Hawaii-based political consultant, sheds new light on an only-in-Donald-Trump’s-America tale of influence peddling. The convoluted global saga ropes in ’90s-era rapper Pras Michel, Russiagate figure Rick Gates, Steve Bannon’s mysterious Chinese funder, the alleged mastermind of the 1MDB scandal, and a failed effort to set up a round of golf between Trump and a now-former Malaysian prime minister.

Broidy is charged with a single count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act over his alleged efforts to obtain favorable treatment from the federal government on behalf of the accused mastermind of the massive 1MalaysiaDevelopment Berhad, or 1MDB, fraud and to facilitate Beijing’s attempted extradition of a fugitive billionaire seeking asylum in the U.S.

Thursday’s release of criminal information signals a plea deal. A spokesman for Broidy, Nate Miller, declined to comment.

The government alleges that Broidy conspired with Michel — best known as a member of the rap group the Fugees — and Nickie Lum Davis, a Hawaiian political consultant, to conceal their efforts to lobby the Trump administration on behalf of Malaysian financier Jho Low, an international fugitive from justice over charges related to his alleged role in 1MDB.

Davispleaded guilty to a FARA violation related to the same effort in August. The Justice Department charged Michel and Low last year with analleged scheme to funnel foreign money to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. A lawyer for Michel, who pleaded not guilty in that case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FARA violations are rarely prosecuted; most often, the federal government will ask those who fail to disclose their foreign backing when lobbying in Washington to simply update their paperwork. But the Justice Department has stepped up its enforcement of the foreign lobbying law in recent years, an effort led by former special counsel prosecutor Brandon Van Grack.

The charging information, which notes Broidy’s alleged use of Wickr, an encrypted messaging app, alleges that he and his partners stood to make more than $80 million if they quickly secured a favorable resolution for Low, who is identified as Foreign National A throughout.

Much of the charging information revolves around Broidy’s alleged efforts to set up a round of golf between Trump and Malaysia’s then-prime minister, Najib Razak, at the president’s Bedminster, N.J., golf course in 2017. The charge sheds new light on the failed effort to set up the round, an episode firstreported by The New York Times in 2018.

Broidy allegedly asked Trump to play a round of golf with Razak in June of that year and told a high-ranking White House official that Trump had agreed to the request, according to the charging document.

The White House official told Broidy the request was sitting with the National Security Council, according to the criminal information.

The high-ranking official, identified as Person E in the indictment, is then-chief of staff Reince Priebus, according to a person familiar with the matter. Priebus, who is not accused of wrongdoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The round of golf never came to pass, but Broidy also inserted himself into the saga of Guo Wengui, a mysterious Chinese billionaire claiming dissident status as he seeks asylum in the United States. Guo is best known as the funder of Steve Bannon’s anti-China efforts. When federal officials arrested Trump’s former chief strategist on unrelated fraud charges this summer, he was aboard Guo’s 151-footsuperyacht, Lady May.

At Low’s behest, Broidy lobbied federal officials in support of Chinese efforts to support Guo’s extradition to China in exchange for potential concessions like cybersecurity cooperation or the release of American prisoners, according to the information.

Those alleged efforts also failed, and Guo remains in the U.S. In a statement provided by his lawyer, Guo said Broidy and his alleged partners were part of “a [Chinese Communist Party] spy-network that is attempting to exert the CCP’s influence and will on the U.S. government and people.”

“The CCP has incessantly targeted me for exposing their weaknesses,” Guo said. “This case shows the unlimited money and efforts they will take to discredit and silence Chinese whistleblowers like me.”

In both matters, Broidy allegedly enlisted the help of a former Trump campaign aide to whom he was paying a $25,000 monthly retainer.

The former aide, identified as Person D, is Rick Gates, Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign manager, according to a person familiar with the matter. Gates, a longtime Paul Manafort lieutenant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and to making false statements related to the investigation into Russian election interference.

The reference to a $25,000 monthly retainer matchespublic information about Gates. After reviewing the information, Gates said he was unsure whether he was Person D. “It could’ve been me,” he said in a telephone interview.

Broidy is best known in recent years for his efforts to build support in Washington for the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf country’s feud with neighboring Qatar. Those efforts were exposed when Broidy’s emails were hacked and leaked to the press, allegedly by agents of Qatar. Broidy’s role in the intra-Arab conflict does not figure in Thursday’s charge.

http://www.sarawakreport.org/2011/08/fbc-media-scandal-hits-the-usa/

no lnx docs [comments section interesting]

SECURE KEY CONTACT INSTRUCTIONS

Sarawak Report

FBC Media Scandal Hits The USA!

22 August 2011 31

FBC Media story starts to unravel in the US

The story of FBC Media has now hit the United States, where a number of media organisations, magazines and TV stations have had links with the company.

The political blog site Politico has been following developments as our revelations started to hit in Malaysia and the UK today it reported that the magazine Atlantic Monthly, is also launching an investigation into its own links with the company.

Atlantic habitually featured articles on the World Economic Forum, written by Alan Friedman from Davos and there are concerns he could have used this as a platform to promote his clients in the same way that he used TV news programmes on CNBC and BBC World. For example, this year Friedman chose to write a gushing report on the good governance of Indonesia by its current President President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Wow! The top event at Davos this year, according to Friedman

Alan Friedman got Najib Razak a Forum event hosted by Atlantic Monthly this year

Meanwhile, the Publisher of Atlantic Monthly, Justin Smith, has also announced he is resigning from the Board of FBC Media where he has sat since 2007. He has acknowledged to Politico that the Chairman of FBC, Alan Friedman had approached him earlier this year to arrange a forum event to be hosted by the magazine, featuring Najib Razak!

This forum was held in March and was indeed hosted by Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows. It is understood that Friedman failed to inform the magazine that Najib Razak and the Malaysian Government were PR clients of the company. Justin Smith told Politico that:

“The truth is that Alan Friedman has been a friend of mine for nearly twenty years. In light of this friendship and my past association with the company, I am very disturbed to learn of the serious allegations being raised about FBC and Alan’s conduct. What I would particularly regret, should these accusations directed at FBC be proven true, is my role in having introduced Alan to The Atlantic’s editors and event planners.

“I have directed a full review of The Atlantic’s dealings with him, and the responsibility at The Atlantic for any problems it might uncover will be mine. It is my job to safeguard at all costs The Atlantic’s reputation for editorial integrity.” [Politico 22.08.2011]

Other media outlets that have been linked to events by FBC Media are Bloomberg’s Business Week Magazine, which runs the European Leaders Forum and the International Herald Tribune, where Alan Friedman formally worked as a correspondent. Both magazines were listed in FBC’s promotional material as potential ‘media platforms’ for their PR clients, which included the State of Malaysia which has paid over RM 57 million of taxpayers money to FBC over the past two years according to budget records.

Clients like Najib and Taib were offered all these ‘media platforms’ by FBC Media. But did these outlets know that they were being used in this way?

SarawakReport

US Customs has a legal obligation to block imports linked to forced labor. So today, alongside our partners International Labor Rights Forum and Rainforest Action Network, we've launched a demand that US Customs seize conflict palm oil from Procter & Gamble’s business partner, ‘FGV’, at US ports!

headlines for white-collar crime this year have largely been grabbed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has uncovered a huge array of financial crimes in President Donald Trump’s inner circle. But though Mueller’s revelations have shocked the American public consciousness, they were probably not the biggest financial scandals of the year.

On Monday, David P. Weber, a law professor and certified fraud examiner who reviewed the Panama Papers and blew the whistle on investigative misconduct as an assistant inspector general for the Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote an op-ed for The Hill outlining some of the most significant corporate scandals of 2018 — and how they prove Congress needs to ensure greater oversight of the financial system.

Weber specifically points to the scandals at :{1Malaysia:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{ Development Berhad:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund accused of a $4.2 billion embezzlement and fraud scheme with help from legal and auditing firms and a Department of Justice lawyer; Operation Car Wash, the gigantic Brazilian money laundering scandal that has implicated hundreds of politicians including multiple presidents; and the ongoing revelations about how European banks involved in the Panama Papers scandal helped oligarchs and tax evaders steal money around the world.

Though these scandals all occurred overseas, Weber notes, they have all in some way landed on U.S. shores by implicating American businessmen and officials.

The 1MDB scandal, for instance, involved three Goldman Sachs bankers, resulting in criminal charges against the U.S. investment banking giant by Malaysian authorities, and according to The Wall Street Journal, a firm linked to the wife of former RNC official Elliott Broidy was allegedly in talks for a $75 million lobbying contract to persuade the Justice Department to back off investigating 1MDB (Broidy and his wife are not mentioned by name in any of the criminal proceedings). In the Operation Car Wash saga, meanwhile a lawsuit alleges that a U.S. law firm improperly held a “strategy session” with a Brazilian prosecutor.

And perhaps most shockingly, in the E.U. banking scandal, multiple legal officials with the federal government, including the former chief of top financial crimes investigation team FinCEN and the former Treasury undersecretary for counterterrorism, are now providing legal counsel to HSBC and Deutsche Bank, two institutions implicated in the scheme.

“When will Congress act to curtain misconduct by professionals?” laments Weber.

In general, white-collar crime has gone underinvestigated for years — which is arguably why Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen and campaign chair Paul Manafort thought they could get away with bank fraud and tax evasion. But there is likely far more misconduct going on below the surface than we know. This year’s scandals reveal the need for a strong, serious enforcement regime, for the integrity of the financial system and the confidence of the public

https://www.alternet.org/elliott-broidy-under-justice-department-investigation

no lnx

Feds Investigating Former RNC Booster For Selling Trump Access To Foreign Governments: Report (Updated)

A longtime Republican donor and former RNC deputy finance chair is facing investigation by the Justice Department.

By Matthew Chapman / AlterNet August 17, 2018, 3:34 PM GMT

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Elliott Broidy, a longtime GOP megadonor and former Republican National Committee official, is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly selling favors from the Trump administration to foreign nationals:

As part of the investigation, prosecutors are scrutinizing a plan that Broidy allegedly developed to try to persuade the Trump government to extradite a Chinese dissident back to his home country, a move sought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to two of the people.

They also are investigating claims that Broidy sought $75 million from a Malaysian business official if the Justice Department ended its investigation of a development fund run by the Malaysian government. The Malaysian probe has examined the role of the former prime minister in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund.

...

Trump To Meet Malaysia's Leader As Probe Against Him Deepens : NPR

www.npr.org/2017/09/.../trump-to-meet-malaysias-leader-as-probe-against-him-deepens

10 hours ago - President Trump on Tuesday welcomes to the White House Malaysia's prime minister, who is a key player in a kleptocracy case. It involves ...

Donald Trump welcomes authoritarian Malaysian PM Najb Razak to ...

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Americas

:{:(style="border-color:#006621;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-4px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{9 hours ago - President Donald :{Trump:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: has made a habit of embracing authoritarian rulers he regards as friendly, without regard for their subversion of ...:(style="word-wrap:break-word"):}:

Here's what President Trump should tell Malaysia's prime minister ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../heres-what-president-trump-should-tell-malaysias-pr...

1 day ago - Nurul Izzah Anwar is a member of the Malaysian Parliament and vice president of the People's Justice Party. On Tuesday, President Trump will ...

Malaysian Leader, Under Corruption Cloud, Will Meet With Trump ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/world/asia/malaysia-najib-razak-1mdb.html

3 days ago - The United States Department of Justice has been investigating Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia for corruption for over a year.

Abramoff's team represented the government of Malaysia, and worked toward improving Malaysian relations with the United States, particularly with trade relations.^[49]

Abramoff also met with the government of Sudan, offering a plan to deflect criticism from American Christian groups over the regime's alleged role in the Darfur conflict. Abramoff promised to enlist Reed to assist, as well as starting a grassroots campaign to improve the image of Sudan in America.^[50]

^singapore ^HQ ^EIC?

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/05/trump-campaign-staffers-lobbying-for-foreign-clients/

Former Trump campaign officials haven’t exactly been bashful about cashing in on their ties to the president in the lobbying sphere. Take Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager. Shortly after the election, he cofounded a lobbying and consulting firm, Avenue Strategies, boasting to domestic and foreign clients of his administration ties. He left the firm in early May, after news outlets reported he failed to register as a lobbyist even as he was pitching face time with the president to clients.

Now, another name on the Trump campaign’s payroll, Healy Baumgardner-Nardone, who was a communications adviser and spokeswoman, will be representing a foreign client, the government of Malaysia.

According to a Department of Justice filing, 45 Group, a project under Baumgardner’s firm, Mona Lisa Communications, will represent the government of Malaysia with “government relations and public relations services.” (Yeah, we know that didn’t clear anything up.)

CRP’s Foreign Lobby Watch shows the only other Malaysian activity in 2017 coming from an “export promotion agency” pushing Malaysian rubber for car parts. But the nation has had an image problem, what with questions about its human rights record and corruption scandals. Two large firms, APCO and Quinn Gillespie & Associates (the latter of which has disbanded) have represented Malaysia in the past to “promote positive U.S./Malaysia relations” and create public relations strategies.

Many of Trump’s big policy pushes impact the small southeast Asian nation. Malaysia was one of the 12 nations included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Trump withdrew from via executive order on his third day in office. And the president’s immigration order troubled politicians in Malaysia, where 60 percent of the population is Muslim.

Trump signed an additional executive order at the end of March aimed at punishing “trade cheaters,” requiring the Secretary of Commerce to publish a report next month that calls out countries with which the U.S. has significant trade deficits. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross singled out Malaysia as one of those, as well Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Canada and others.

Baumgardner’s group received $250,000 on May 9, which also included “business consulting services for activities that are not governed by FARA.”

Baumgardner worked for the Trump campaign from January to September 2016. She also held government posts in the George W. Bush administration, serving as the press secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy from 2008 to 2009 and as a press representative for the White House from 2002 to 2007. She also was deputy communications director for former N.Y. Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.

While her social media profile highlights her work for Trump (she writes of being “one of the first national television surrogates” for the candidate), she quit in September, reportedly in a dispute about the campaign’s direction in Florida.

This is far from the first instance of former Trump campaign workers-turned-lobbyists drumming up foreign clients. Barry Bennett, who was a senior adviser to the campaign, cofounded Avenue Strategies and remained there after Lewandowski left; Avenue has inked contracts with the Northern Mariana Islands and the Venezuelan government-owned oil company CITGO, the latter of which is paying Avenue $25,000 per month. Sonoran Policy Group (SPG), which employs three former Trump staffers including Stuart Jolly, a national field director for the campaign, has managed to snag New Zealand, the Czech Republic and — just last week, immediately before Trump visited the country — the Saudi Interior Ministry. Brian Lanza, a deputy communications director for the campaign, is at Mercury, which this year has signed the Embassy of Qatar, the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, and the Japanese embassy.

Categories: Foreign Lobbying Influence & Lobbying

Tags: corey lewandowski, Donald Trump, fara, foreign lobbying, Healy Baumgardner-Nardone, lobbying, malaysia, Revolving Door

^==^

http://www.globalpossibilities.org/worst-flooding-in-decades-forces-evacuation-of-more-than-100000-malaysians/

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wiki:

Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. Less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.

The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a large role in politics. The government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on English Common Law. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while protecting freedom of religion. The head of state is the King, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the Prime Minister.

Malaysia contains the southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai. Located in the tropics, it is a megadiverse country, with large numbers of endemic animals, fungi and plants. It is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the East Asia Summit and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and a member of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Non-Aligned Movement.

...Traditionally, energy production in Malaysia has been based on oil and natural gas.^[147] The country has 13 GW of electrical generation capacity.^[148] However, the country only has 33 years of natural gas reserves, and 19 years of oil reserves, while the demand for energy is increasing. In response, the government is expanding into renewable energy sources.^[147] Sixteen per cent of electricity generation is hydroelectric, the remaining 84 per cent being thermal.^[148] The oil and gas industry is dominated by state owned Petronas,^[149] and the energy sector as a whole is regulated by the Energy Commission of Malaysia, a statutory commission that governs the energy in the peninsula and Sabah, under the terms of the Electricity Commission Act of 2001.^[150]