ANNUAL REPORT 2016 MALAYSIA SOCIETY FOR TRANSPARENCY AND INTEGRITY (Transparency International – Malaysia) ROS No: PPM-007-10-28081999 No: 8, Lorong 12/17C , Section 12, 46200 Petaling Jaya Selangor, Malaysia Tel : +603 – 7960 6630 Fax : +603 – 7960 6690 Email :
[email protected] Website : www.transparency.org.my President’s Message Dear TI-M Members, Welcome to this 19th Annual General Meeting. Last July, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) was seeking to recover more than $1 billion of assets they believe were purchased using money misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Bhd, 1MDB. The DOJ described as the largest single action ever brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. What is Kleptocracy? ‘Klepto’ is thief, ‘cracy’ is rule. Kleptocracy is defined as a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; and the nation is ruled by a thief or thieves. A kleptocratic government would impose massive tax burdens on the public and enterprises, and at the same time the kleptocratic leaders would treat its country’s treasury as though it is its own bank account. In 2004, Transparency International (TI) has defined Indonesia president Suharto as the most corrupt world leader of the past 20 year who stole between US$15 billion to US$35 billion. He topped notorious kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines who robbed between US$5 billion to US$10 billion. These corrupted leaders were ousted, got arrested, prosecuted or sentenced to life in prison. Their spouses, children, grandchildren and families suffered and were humiliated for generations. Those who are involved in the case of 1MDB must be prepared for the consequences of kleptocratic actions.