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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian government Tuesday rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying that deposits into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s private bank accounts exceeded one billion dollars and were “hundreds of millions more than previously identified.”
The government issued a statement accusing the U.S.-based newspaper of “unethical” journalism and being used by Najib’s enemies to tarnish his reputation.
"They keep repeating the same old allegations without providing evidence; they keep relying solely on anonymous sources that might not even exist; and they keep choosing to omit key known facts,” the state-run Bernama news agency quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying.
“The Wall Street Journal has become a willing vehicle for certain political actors who are seeking to damage the prime minister and Malaysia for personal gain. But this politically motivated anti-Najib campaign, which sought to use Western media, has failed,” the spokesman said.
In its latest report on a scandal that has beleaguered Najib since last year and led to calls for his resignation, the Journal on Tuesday claimed that more than U.S. $1 billion (4.1 billion ringgit) started flowing into Najib’s accounts in 2011 and 2012, and that “global investigators believe that much of it originated” with indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The new figure includes a previously reported deposit of $681 million (2.08 billion ringgit) to Najib’s accounts in the run-up to Malaysia’s general election in 2013, according to the Journal.
In January, Malaysia’s attorney general cleared Najib of potential corruption-related charges, saying that the $681 million was a legal donation from the Saudi royal family, and most of it had been returned. Afterwards, Najib said it was time to put the matter behind him.
Similar name
Najib established 1MDB in 2009 to promote economic development in Malaysia.
That same year, the state-owned Abu Dhabi firm Aabar Investments PJS – a unit of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) – said it would help 1MDB build a finance center in Kuala Lumpur and acquire power plants, the Journal said.
1MDB’s financial filings show that in 2012 it paid a cash deposit of $1.4 billion to a company called Aabar – without specifying a full name. It also paid nearly $1 billion in 2014, according to a draft report by Malaysia’s auditor general, the Journal said.
IPIC has denied that it or Aabar Investments PJS ever received this money, the Journal reported, quoting sources familiar with the matter.
The amount flowed instead into a company with a similar name registered in the British Virgin Islands, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, and from there through other entities into Najib’s accounts, the Journal alleged.
“Investigators believe that sometime later, most of the $681 million was sent back into the web of offshore entities through which it had arrived,” the report said.
“International investigators have found no evidence any of this came from Saudi Arabia.”
‘Corruption is corruption’
On Tuesday, 1MDB issued its own statement rejecting the Wall Street Journal report.
The state fund said it “had not paid any funds to the personal accounts of the Prime Minister.” It also pointed to the attorney general’s and other investigations that linked the 2013 money to Saudi Arabia.
“Not once has the publication offered any conclusive evidence to support its claims, with the only justification for their continued attacks being information that they claim to have obtained from unnamed and anonymous sources,” 1MDB said in a news release.
Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he never took money for personal gain.
Meanwhile, the Sultan of Perak, Nazrin Shah, said Tuesday that corrupt practices in Malaysia should be reported "without favor, without fear, without being lopsided, because corruption is corruption no matter who commits it."
He insisted that people should be educated to view corruption as a negative and to reject leaders responsible for it.
"Fighting corruption should become a struggle, a 'jihad,' as it is the responsibility and obligation of every citizen of the country to prevent the country from sliding into the valley of humilation," the sultan said at the Utusan Business Awards 2015 ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.


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