French regulators have seized several properties belonging to former Aabar Investments PJS chairman Khadem Al Qubaisi in its probe into 1MDB

French regulators seized 1MDB-linked properties
FMT Reporters
-December 30, 2018 11:58 AM(Reuters pic)

PETALING JAYA: French regulators have seized several properties belonging to former Aabar Investments PJS chairman Khadem Al Qubaisi in its probe into 1MDB, the Sarawak Report (SR) wrote.

Citing numerous other reports, it said these include a country house worth 11 million euros (over RM52 million) located near the Cape of Saint-Tropez; a luxury villa in Ramatuelle estimated at 7.9 million euros; a 4.4 million euros apartment in Avenue Montaigne, Paris; and another unit near the Champ de Mars, said to cost 4.6 million euros.

“The luxurious Cote d’Azure around Saint Tropez and the swankier arrondissement of Paris were the Abu Dhabi fund manager’s second home and playground (respectively) away from the more restrictive atmosphere back home, it would appear,” the whistleblowing site reported, referring to Khadem who is also the managing director of International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) – Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.

Citing Le Monde, a French daily, SR wrote that the country house – which has a vineyard and a landscaped garden with a swimming pool – is being rented out by the state for RM90,000 a week, after it was “secretly sequestrated at the end of last year”.

According to SR, controversial businessman Low Taek Jho, who is at the centre of the 1MDB scandal, had visited Khadem at the Saint Tropez “hideaway” at least twice to discuss deals involving the state investment fund.

Low, better known as Jho Low, SR wrote, arrived by helicopter, “which landed on the spacious lawns of the property”.

“During another such meeting, the two conspirators met up in the kitchen area of one of KAQ’s (Khadem Al Qubaisi) favoured night spots to discuss plans, apparently in order to avoid being seen openly together.”

SR went on to report that it had revealed details of the Paris properties three years ago and they were under the directorships of Khadem’s bank manager, Marc Amboisien, who was then attached with the Edmond de Rothschild Bank Luxembourg.

Amboisien, it said, acted privately for a number of Khadem’s businesses before the site revealed that kickbacks of over half a billion dollars had been channelled into Khadem’s Vasco Trust account at the bank between 2012 and 2013.

“Those kickbacks turned out to have been linked to the corrupt guarantees arranged by KAQ on behalf of 1MDB and (former prime minister Najib (Razak’s) fixer for the fund – Jho Low – as part of the US$6.5 billion bond deals raised for the Malaysian development fund by Goldman Sachs.”

Last month, International Petroleum Investment Co and Aabar Investments PJS sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc, claiming it suffered losses from the bank’s “central role” in the 1MDB scandal. The two entities are seeking unspecified damages.

The funds claimed they were harmed when Goldman Sachs paid bribes to Khadem and former Aabar Investments CEO Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.

In exchange “Al-Qubaisi and Al-Husseiny agreed to manipulate and mislead IPIC and Aabar, and to misuse the companies’ names, networks and infrastructure to further the criminal schemes and to personally benefit”, according to the complaint