Interpol help not sought

KUALA LUMPUR: No request has been made for Interpol to help trace the whereabouts of five individuals related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investigation, including businessman Low Taek Jho, popularly known as Jho Low (pix).
"Interpol cannot detect and determine the current whereabouts of those individuals as there is no investigation by the police against them," Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.
"Furthermore, no application was received from any quarters requesting Interpol to trace those named," Zahid, who is also the home minister, said in a written reply to a Dewan Rakyat question from Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya).
Wong Chen had asked the Home Ministry to state the whereabouts of Low, former 1MDB executives Casey Tang and Jasmine Loo, and SRC International's managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, as well as Deutsche Bank country manager Yusof Annuar Yaacob.
Wong Chen told a press conference later that the reply was shocking, although the blame should not be placed solely on the ministry as no official report was made by other authorities probing the matter.
"I now ask Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed to immediately file police reports and request the police and Interpol to help trace and secure those individuals," he said.
"Failing to do so within 24 hours will amount to a breach of their fiduciary duties to investigate the 1MDB scandal without fear or favour," said Wong.
"These five individuals are not hiding in the caves of Tora Bora but are in fact visibly living the high life," he said, pointing out that some of the individuals are not difficult to locate and their locations have in fact been made known.
He said for example, Jasmine Loo had been traced to a high-end US$4.5 million (about RM19.7 million) apartment in New York by the New York Times in September.