As his party foes went public with their criticisms, a whistle-blowing former senior member of UMNO, Khairuddin Hassan, and his lawyer, Matthias Chang, were formally charged on Monday with attempts to sabotage Malaysia’s banking and financial systems.
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Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and a few leaders of the ruling party jointly demanded resolution of the 1MDB state fund scandal today and condemned a crackdown on dissent, signalling a divide within the coalition.
“It is noted that Bank Negara Malaysia did not take more than three days to grant the said permissions on all three occasions”, Apandi said.
“It is important to highlight Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) clearly stated ‘… the Bank concluded that permissions required under the ECA for 1MDB’s investments overseas were obtained based on inaccurate or without complete disclosure of material information relevant to the Bank’s assessment of 1MDB’s applications'”, said 1MDB in a statement on the same day.
Both Khairuddin and Chang were detained under Section 124 of the Security Offence (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012 over offences deemed detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
They were charged with attempting to “sabotage Malaysia’s banking and financial services sector”.
“Thank you to the AG for clarifying that 1MDB indeed followed procedures and did not break any laws as claimed by the Governor of BNM”, the urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister said.
DAP has urged 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to confirm if it breached Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) overseas funds transfer regulations, following the company’s confirmation that minutes of a board meeting revealed by whistleblower site Sarawak Report were authentic.
“By dismissing this case suspicions will remain in the minds of the people”, said Dr Mahathir, who has waged a relentless campaign for Mr Najib’s resignation.
Najib Razak, who has faced a funding scandal over money that showed up in his personal bank accounts before the last election in 2013.
“Any calls for a change of government is part and parcel of the democratic process”, said Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest serving prime minister who ruled the country for 22 years. “Najib has too many scandals, and he can not seem to respond to them”, the outspoken former prime minister said.
Prime Minister Najib Razak faces mounting calls to explain massive sums of money allegedly missing from a state-owned development company he launched, as well as the revelation in July that almost US$700 million in mysterious transfers had been made to his personal bank accounts.
Khairuddin and Chang are expected to appear in court on October 26 and could be jailed up to 15 years if found guilty, according to media reports.
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A recent New York Times investigative report also detailed multi-million-dollar purchases of luxury United States real estate by a close Najib family associate and 1MDB figure, financier Low Taek Jho.
