By REUTERS
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had close to US$700 million (RM2.63 billion) in deposits from troubled state fund 1MDB wired into his personal account, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing documents from a government probe.
There were five deposits into Najib’s account and the two largest transactions, worth US$620 million and US$61 million, were done in March 2013 during an election campaign in Malaysia, the
newspaper said.
A Malaysian government spokesman told the newspaper that the prime minister had not taken any funds for personal use.
Reuters could not independently verify the newspaper report.
A spokesman for the prime minister’s office told Reuters that a statement would be issued later in the day. He gave no immediate response to the report.
A spokesman for 1MDB was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying it was unaware of any such transactions and had not seen any documents to this effect. A fund spokesman told Reuters
a statement would be issued “in the next couple of hours”.
The state fund has faced a storm of criticism over its debt of nearly US$11.6 billion and financial mismanagement. Najib chairs the fund’s advisory board.
The fund is facing separate investigations by the country’s central bank, auditor-general, police force and the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
The auditor-general will present an interim report on its probe during a briefing with the Public Accounts Committee on July 9, The Edge Financial Daily said on Friday.
— by Praveen Menon
You must be logged in to post a comment.