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Six bank accounts frozen, documents seized for 1MDB probe

KUALA LUMPUR — The special taskforce investigating 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) froze six bank accounts today (July 7) following the Wall Street Journal’s allegations that nearly US$700 million (S$950 million) had been transferred from the state investment firm to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal accounts. The American daily released documents to back up its earlier report hours later.

Traffic passes a 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 6, 2015. Photo: Reuters

Traffic passes a 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 6, 2015. Photo: Reuters

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KUALA LUMPUR — The special taskforce investigating 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) froze six bank accounts today (July 7) following the Wall Street Journal’s allegations that nearly US$700 million (S$950 million) had been transferred from the state investment firm to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal accounts. The American daily released documents to back up its earlier report hours later.

The documents, which were released online, include a remittance application form, cash deposit authorisation letter and charts outlining the flow of money. Some numbers in the documents, however, have been blanked out. WSJ said the documents had been sourced “from a Malaysian government investigation”, but noted that the papers do not state the original money source or provide further details on the cash after it was allegedly transferred to Mr Najib’s accounts.

In a joint statement earlier today, the taskforce announced that the authorities had frozen six accounts linked to the claims. “Additionally, the special taskforce has seized documents related to 17 accounts from two banks to facilitate investigations,” Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail said in the statement. Besides Mr Gani, the statement’s other signatories were Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed.

“Investigations are ongoing. The special taskforce urges all parties to give their full cooperation in order to complete the investigations,” the statement read, but did not identify the bank accounts frozen.

In WSJ’s report today, it claimed that the frozen accounts were different from those mentioned in Friday’s report, citing an unnamed individual. The flowcharts and bank documents it uploaded today relate to transactions in March 2013, last December and February this year, which purportedly ended up in Mr Najib’s accounts in AmIslamic Bank.

A letter in January last year on power of attorney over three bank accounts under AmIslamic Bank, which WSJ said belonged to Mr Najib, was also provided. The letter was authorised by an individual named Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who was identified by WSJ as a director at SRC International, a firm owned by the Finance Ministry.

The last few digits of the three bank accounts and other details were redacted in the documents WSJ uploaded onto the Internet. The authenticity of the documents has yet to be independently verified.

Mr Najib and his office have strongly denied the claims made by WSJ on Friday, calling it political sabotage. The Prime Minister, who has come under fire for scandals surrounding 1MDB, also accused former Premier Mahathir Mohamad of working with foreign agents to attack his administration.

Over the weekend, Mr Gani said the taskforce was going through documents taken from the premises of SRC International, Gandingan Mentari and Ihsan Perdana. The three companies were also named by WSJ in Friday’s report. AGENCIES

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