{"id":10350,"date":"2015-07-24T07:13:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T12:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10350"},"modified":"2015-07-24T07:13:05","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T12:13:05","slug":"bcs-gas-export-hopes-face-scandal-that-ate-malaysia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10350","title":{"rendered":"BC’s Gas Export Hopes Face ‘Scandal that Ate Malaysia’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BC’s Gas Export Hopes Face ‘Scandal that Ate Malaysia’<\/a><\/h3>\n

Asian nation’s PM, key to $36 billion LNG bid by Petronas, in corruption probe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prime minister of Malaysia, who is central to British Columbia’s liquefied natural gas development ambitions, is the subject of a major financial corruption scandal rocking his country.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal, citing documents from government probes, reported that investigators suspected that almost $700 million in cash had been wired through state agencies, banks, and companies linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).<\/p>\n

The company is a state-owned development vehicle chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who also serves as the country’s treasury minister.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe the $700 million eventually found its way into Najib’s personal accounts and served as a slush fund for the last election. Malaysia has few rules on campaign donations or election spending.<\/p>\n

Najib is the top authority overseeing Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas, whose massive potential investment in B.C. liquefied natural gas (LNG) was greenlit by the provincial legislature earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Now, The Australian and other news sources are\u00a0saying<\/a>\u00a0reports of corruption have paralyzed the Malaysian government. “The scandal that ate Malaysia” is how U.S. business news agency Bloomberg is dubbing the financial brouhaha.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The debacle threatens to undermine the nation’s economy, according to an expert\u00a0writing<\/a>\u00a0for East Asia Forum: “Malaysia’s international credibility is on the line, as is its currency, access to foreign capital and future economic prosperity.”<\/p>\n

To date a task force investigating the 1MDB allegations has already frozen half a dozen bank accounts in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Petronas key to Clark’s LNG ambitions<\/strong><\/p>\n

In May of 2014, Premier Christy Clarksat<\/a>\u00a0for a photograph with Najib, central to any deal she sought with Petronas. The meeting was part of an eight-day trip to Malaysia and Hong Kong to promote LNG development after Clark made election campaign promises that LNG would create 100,000 jobs and erase the province’s debt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BC’s Gas Export Hopes Face ‘Scandal that Ate Malaysia’ Asian nation’s PM, key to $36 billion LNG bid by Petronas, in corruption probe. The prime minister of Malaysia, who is central to British Columbia’s liquefied natural gas development ambitions, is the subject of a major financial corruption scandal rocking his country. Earlier this month The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[65,94,1769,1714,1190,1445,7511,1715,5499],"class_list":["post-10350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","tag-bc","tag-british-columbia","tag-corruption","tag-liquified-natural-gas","tag-lng","tag-malaysia","tag-najib-razak","tag-petronas","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10351,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350\/revisions\/10351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}