Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin speaks to reporters during a tour at the Putrajaya Youth Festival (FBP) in Putrajaya, May 20, 2015. ― Picture by Kamles KumarPUTRAJAYA, May 20 — Flamboyant billionaire Low Taek Jho must be investigated over his alleged link to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
Responding to the Public Account Committee (PAC) saying it will not yet summon the tycoon known as Jho Low for its investigation, Khairy insisted there was too much speculation about the former’s involvement with 1MDB to be ignored.
“I hold PAC by the words 'at the moment', but Jho Low should eventually be called in. His alleged fingerprints are all over the 1MDB dealings,” the youth and sports minister told reporters at Putrajaya today.
“There is too much speculation on his involvement in 1MDB. I don’t think we can not call him in.”
PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said yesterday that the committee did not “see the need at the moment” to question the flamboyant billionaire better and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Calling Jho Low “one of the main characters in the 1MDB saga”, Khairy said the PAC should at least take his statement to resolve the unanswered questions from the public over his involvement.
“They (PAC) must call him in because, as far as the public is concerned, if you do not call him in there will be no closure,” he said.
“The public expects that because the allegations against him and his involvement are not small,” Khairy said.
In March, Najib ordered the Auditor-General and PAC to investigate 1MDB, amid growing demands for explanations over the state investment firm’s allegedly opaque investment decisions and for amassing a RM42 billion debt pile.
A month after, Khairy demanded authorities to investigate Low for his role in 1MDB, after the tycoon accused Umno of blaming him for the state-owned investment firm’s troubles.
Low has repeatedly denied any association with 1MDB but continues to be linked with it due to his involvement in 1MDB’s predecessor, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).
1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after Najib announced the decision to turn the TIA state fund into a federal agency.
Since then the fund has been dogged by negative publicity over its finances and debts with the most recent one being the controversial land deal with Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH).
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