Malaysia raids state investment fund office over graft probe against PM

Malaysian police on Wednesday raided the office of the state investment fund 1MDB following a probe into the alleged transfer of almost USD 700 million into the personal account of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“We can confirm that a number of officials from the task force, conducting an enquiry into 1MDB, visited our offices today,” 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) said in a statement. “They were provided with a number of documents and materials to aid with the investigations currently taking place.” 

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week that investigators probing 1MDB had traced funds flowing into Najib’s personal account when he was campaigning for a general election over two years ago.

Malaysia’s Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail ordered a full probe to find out who could have leaked bank documents relating to the fund to the?Wall Street Journal, warning that he may prosecute the person.

On July 3, The Wall Street Journal published a report alleging the money trail of USD 700 million were transferred to the personal accounts of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Najib and 1MDB have both denied the report.

Abdul Gani said in a statement today that the documents were <g data-gr-id="33">subject</g> matter of an ongoing investigation.

None of the six bank accounts ordered frozen in the on-going probe into allegations of financial discrepancies in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) accounts belonged to the prime minister, the AG said.

“A further concern was that the documents were allegedly leaked from within the investigation itself,” he said in his statement.

Abdul Gani stressed that the whole purpose of setting up an inter-agency special task force to investigate the matter was to ensure there could be no abuse of the investigation mechanism.

“I will not hesitate to prosecute any person found to have leaked confidential investigation related information as it is a criminal offence under the Financial Services Act 2013, and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013.” 

Meanwhile, Najib wants The Wall Street Journal to explain its July 3 article.

His legal firm, Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, sent the letter to the board of directors, Dow Jones & Co Inc, The Wall Street Journal, at the Dow Jones headquarters in New York today.

The letter stated that the firm had been instructed to identify “facts to proceed with further instructions” by way of the parties involved in the writing, distributing and publishing the article.

This is would be to enable the “service of any legal letter or court documents.”