{"id":19990,"date":"2018-10-27T04:22:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T04:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19990"},"modified":"2018-10-27T04:22:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T04:22:46","slug":"former-pm-najib-denies-wrongdoing-as-malaysia-deepens-1mdb-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19990","title":{"rendered":"Former PM Najib denies wrongdoing as Malaysia deepens 1MDB probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<\/strong> – Former prime minister Najib Razak – currently facing 38 corruption charges in an ongoing investigation into troubled state fund 1MDB that spans at least six countries – admitted things “went wrong” but insisted he wasn’t involved in any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

“There are things that went wrong in 1MDB,” Najib admitted in an interview with Al Jazeera’s 101 East<\/a> that was broadcast on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But he insisted even though he was prime minister and had ultimate oversight of the fund he was not aware of the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> through offshore bank accounts around the world, and had done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

“My conscience is clear,” he said. “I would not receive a single cent from sources connected with 1MDB because if it’s 1MDB I would know right away it would not be the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Najib has appeared in court four times since his party lost power in May’s general election amid simmering public anger over 1MDB<\/a>. It was the first change in government since the country won its independence from Britain in 1957.<\/p>\n

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Malaysia’s opposition pulls off shocking election win<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

This week, he appeared in court with his former treasury chief to face six counts of criminal breach of trust involving the misuse of 6.6 billion ringgit ($1.6bn) in government funds.<\/p>\n

“It’s something he has repeatedly said even when he was in power,” said Keith Leong, head of research at KRA Group in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

“[It] will likely be his main defence. There is such feeling against him. One doesn’t know what else he could say. Because this thing was so opaque,\u00a0so mysterious.”<\/p>\n

‘Banking secrets’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The former prime minister – who twice threatened to walk out of the interview – insisted the $681m found in his personal bank account was a gift from a Saudi prince<\/a>, and he could not trace the source of any of the money because he “did not have access to banking secrets”.<\/p>\n

Investigators say that money, which was deposited into the account just before the 2013 election, was given to politicians and covered shopping sprees and credit card bills.<\/p>\n

1MDB is under investigation in at least six countries including Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice<\/a> has said more than $4.5bn was stolen by high-level Malaysian officials and their associates.<\/span><\/p>\n

Najib insisted he didn’t deliberately close down the Malaysian investigation<\/a> by suddenly replacing the country’s attorney-general in 2015, and firing ministers who questioned what was going on at the fund.<\/p>\n

“I reject that totally because I am on record,” he told 101 East. “I’m on record to say that anyone who has done something wrong will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”<\/p>\n

‘Creating value’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1MDB was established as a sovereign fund in 2009 with the help of a now-infamous financier commonly known as Jho Low.<\/p>\n

Najib said he saw Low’s role in the fund as “creating value”.<\/p>\n

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Malaysia has ‘almost perfect case’ against ex-PM Najib Razak<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Investigators allege huge sums of money were siphoned out of the fund through a web of offshore bank accounts helping party-loving Low live a life of luxury with a private jet, a $260m ocean-going yacht, and luxury homes in New York City and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

They say 1MDB money also helped fund the Leonardo di Caprio movie Wolf of Wall Street<\/a>, which was produced by Najib’s stepson and banned in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

In June, Malaysian police seized bundles of cash<\/a>, designer handbags, and jewellery in raids on a series of Najib’s properties around the capital.<\/p>\n

It took three days, six cash-counting machines, and 22 officials from the central bank to add up the money found at the premises, Amar Singh, head of the commercial crime division,<\/span> told reporters at the time.<\/p>\n

The cash totalled $28.9m in 26 different currencies, including the Malaysian ringgit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Former prime minister Najib Razak – currently facing 38 corruption charges in an ongoing investigation into troubled state fund 1MDB that spans at least six countries – admitted things “went wrong” but insisted he wasn’t involved in any wrongdoing. “There are things that went wrong in 1MDB,” Najib admitted in an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}