Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak is a Malaysian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. In 2020, he was convicted of corruption in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the largest money-laundering and embezzlement scandals in history. He is the son of former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Najib Razak was the chairman of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition from April 2009 to May 2018 and the president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from November 2008 to May 2018, which had maintained control of Malaysia's government with a parliamentary majority for more than sixty years until the coalition's defeat in the 2018 general election.
1Malaysia Development Berhad is an insolvent Malaysian strategic development company, wholly owned by the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).
Khadem Abdullah al-Qubaisi is an Emirati businessman and the former managing director of the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC). In 2015, he was replaced as managing director of IPIC and later investigated in a series of probes into misappropriated funds in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad. He was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2016 as part of investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. In 2019, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
Clare Rewcastle Brown is a British environmental and anti-corruption journalist and activist who uncovered the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Born in the former British Crown Colony of Sarawak, she is the founder and operator of the Sarawak Report blog and Radio Free Sarawak which have exposed corruption driving deforestation and human rights violations in that state along with failures in the global financial systems which facilitate kleptocracy. In 2015 she shifted her focus to the federal government of Malaysia and the country's prime minister, Najib Razak. Her blog Sarawak Report gained widespread recognition for its original and early exposure of the 1MDB scandal, which contributed to widespread disillusionment with Najib's Barisan Nasional government, culminating in its loss in the 2018 elections.
Sarawak Report is an investigative journalism website focused on environmental and corruption issues in Malaysia. It has been largely self-published and operated from London since 2010 by Clare Rewcastle Brown. The blog had originally focused on the welfare of the indigenous people in Sarawak but eventually published original exposés on corruption scandals in wider Malaysia. In 2017, it gained wide recognition for its original and early exposure of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, which had led the Najib Razak-led Malaysian government to block the website. The blog was openly critical of the Barisan Nasional-led state and federal governments of Sarawak and Malaysia, and supportive of the Pakatan Harapan opposition.
Joey McFarland is an American film producer and the founder of McFarland Entertainment, a content development and production company for both film and television. He was previously vice chairman of Red Granite Pictures.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American epic satirical biographical black comedy drama film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort; Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff; Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia; Matthew McConaughey as his mentor and former boss Mark Hanna; and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. It is DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Scorsese.
Dumb and Dumber To is a 2014 American buddy comedy film co-written and directed by the Farrelly brothers. It is the third film in the Dumb and Dumber franchise and a sequel to the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber. The film stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprising their roles 20 years after the events of the first film as well as Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin, and Kathleen Turner. The film tells the story of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, two dimwitted friends who set out on a cross-country road trip to locate Harry's daughter, who has been adopted.
Riza Shahriz bin Abdul Aziz, better known as Riza Aziz, is a Malaysian film producer and the co-founder of Red Granite Pictures, a Los Angeles–based film production company.
Emma Tillinger Koskoff is an American film producer. She is best known for her collaborations with Martin Scorsese, including acting as a producer on his films The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016) and The Irishman (2019).
Tim Leissner is a German-born investment banker and convicted felon. As managing director at Goldman Sachs and chairman of the bank's Southeast Asia division Leissner helped orchestrate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which billions of dollars were stolen. He was arrested in June 2018 in Washington, D.C., forced to pay a $43 million fine. As of 2020 he faced up to 25 years in prison but due to his cooperation has avoided spending any time in jail.
The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, often referred to as the 1MDB scandal or just 1MDB, is an ongoing corruption, bribery and money laundering conspiracy in which the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was systematically embezzled, with assets diverted globally by the perpetrators of the scheme. Although it began in 2009 in Malaysia, the scandal's global scope implicated institutions and individuals in politics, banking, and entertainment, and led to criminal investigations in a number of nations. The 1MDB scandal has been described as "one of the world's greatest financial scandals" and declared by the United States Department of Justice as the "largest kleptocracy case to date" in 2016.
Bandar Malaysia was a proposed mixed-use transit-oriented development located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This project was to be built at the current Sungai Besi Air Base site over 20 years. It was also planned as a central transport hub connecting high-speed rail to Singapore, Mass Rapid Transit, KTM Komuter, Express Rail Link, and 12 other highways with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of over RM140 billion.
2018 in Malaysia is Malaysia's 61st anniversary of its independence and 55th anniversary of Malaysia's formation.
Low Taek Jho, often called Jho Low, is a Malaysian businessman and international fugitive, wanted by authorities in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. He has been named the mastermind of the massive fraud, which prosecutors allege was a scheme to siphon US$4.5 billion from 1MDB into Low's personal accounts. He is the beneficiary of numerous discretionary trust assets said by the US government to originate from payments out of the Malaysian 1MDB fund. Low has maintained his innocence and contends that Malaysian authorities are engaging in a campaign of harassment and political persecution due to his prior support of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose part in the 1MDB scandal had led to Najib being convicted on seven counts of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.
The Kleptocrats is a 2018 documentary film produced by Mike Lerner and directed by Sam Hobkinson and Havana Marking that investigates the theft of over $3 billion from Malaysian government fund 1MDB. The scandal implicated several public figures, such as the former prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, his stepson, Riza Aziz, and missing fugitive Jho Low.
The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal is an ongoing political scandal in Malaysia, in which then-Prime Minister Najib Razak was accused of channeling over RM 2.67 billion into his personal bank accounts from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a government-run strategic development company. 1MDB was overseen by Najib as head of its advisory board. Following repeated calls for resignation by the public, Najib lost power in the 2018 Malaysian general election, and is currently on trial along with several key figures involved.
Billion Dollar Whale is a non-fiction book by The Wall Street Journal correspondents Tom Wright and Bradley Hope. Published on September 18, 2018, by Hachette Books, the book focuses on how Malaysian financier Jho Low allegedly masterminded a US$4.5 billion fraud in what is referred to as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.
Najib Razak is the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, the son of former 2nd prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. One of the most controversial leaders of the 21st century, his period of rule was marked by corruption, an extravagant lifestyle, and crackdown on free speech.
Man on the Run is a 2023 documentary film directed, written and executively produced by Cassius Michael Kim. The film revolves on the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and the involvement of former sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak and the fugitive businessman, Jho Low in a scandal that shook Malaysia. The film was released on 19 October 2023 in Malaysia.
