Members of Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), have closed ranks behind the prime minister, who had already been on the back foot over alleged mismanagement of 1MDB and his handling of the economy.
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1MDB and Malaysia police did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
A special taskforce probing the WSJ report has reportedly frozen six bank accounts while documents on 17 accounts from two banks have been seized as part of investigations. A month later the government ordered the Auditor-General to verify 1MDB’s accounts, and Najib asked investigators to expedite the process in May.
The legal letter criticises the Wall Street Journal’s reports and asks the newspaper to clarify whether it is alleging that Mr Najib misappropriated funds from 1MDB, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that investigators looking into state-owned fund 1MDB had traced almost $700-million of money that came from an account at Falcon Private Bank in Singapore into accounts in Malaysia they believed belonged to the prime minister.
Two calls and one e-mail to a spokeswoman for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co in Hong Kong were not answered.
The claims about the payments have prompted calls for Najib’s resignation or for him to take a leave of absence.
The prime minister was expected to hold a regular cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the first since the WSJ report sparked a political crisis that has contributed to a fall in the ringgit currency to a 16-year low against the dollar.
“The Malaysian authorities have launched an investigation into…”
“I would like to stress again that I had never taken 1MDB’s for my personal interest”.
“They were provided with a number of documents and materials to aid with the investigations now taking place”, said 1MDB.
“You will no doubt appreciate the seriousness of the allegations made against our client in the said articles and this confirmation is sought to enable us to advise our client on the appropriate legal recourse he can take to seek redress in relation to the publication of the articles”.
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His legal firm, Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, said it was now identifying “facts to proceed with further instructions” by way of the parties involved in the writing, distributing and publishing the article.
