WSJ claims RM2.67bil deposited into PM Najib's accounts

 

KUALA Lumpur: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Malaysian investigators had traced nearly US$700mil (RM2.67bil) of deposits into what it believes are personal bank accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

It alleged that government probe documents showed movement of cash among government agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB before it ended up in the accounts.

WSJ reportedly reviewed documents including bank transfer forms and flow charts put together by the investigators, reflecting their understanding of the path of the cash.

According to the journal, investigators identified five separate deposits into the accounts which came from two sources.

The largest were two deposits of US$620mil and US$61mil in March 2013 from Tanore Finance, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands prior to the 13th general election.

The cash was allegedly transferred via a Swiss bank (Falcon Private Bank in Singapore) owned by International Petroleum Invest­ment Co (an Abu Dhabi state fund) to an account in AmIslamic Bank branch in Kuala Lumpur (allegedly owned by Najib).

Another set of transfers, totalling RM42mil (US$11.1mil), was alle­gedly from SRC International Sdn Bhd, an energy company originally controlled by 1MDB but transferred to the Finance Ministry in 2012.

The money supposedly moved through another company, Gandin­gan Mentari (owned by SRC International) and then to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (which provides corporate social responsibility programmes for 1MDB’s charitable foundation) and finally to Najib’s personal accounts in three separate deposits.

SRC International allegedly transferred RM40mil on Dec 24 last year to Gandingan Mentari which on the same day wired the money to Ihsan Perdana.

Ihsan Perdana wired RM27mil and RM5mil in two separate transfers to two different bank accounts owned by Najib.

In February this year, RM10mil supposedly entered the Prime Minister’s account, also from SRC International via Ihsan Perdana.

Remittance documents do not name Najib as the beneficiary but detailed account numbers at a branch of AmIslamic Bank Bhd in Kuala Lumpur.

Two flow charts from the investigation name the owner of the accounts as “Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Hj Abd Razak”.