Probe RM40m ‘donation’, Bank Negara told

PKR today lodged a report with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), saying that the central bank has a strong basis to initiate investigations into the RM40 million scandal which “goes all the way up to the prime minister”.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli handed a statement to BNM’s communications officer Zoe Rai, in which he suggested several Sections under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2011 that could be applied.

He said that the powerful legislation talked about how it was incumbent on a person to report about receiving money even if it was merely deemed “suspicious”. “This law is all encompassing, it doesn’t matter if you had the intention or whether you knew. “When Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that the money was for Umno, it meant Umno was automatically guilty [under anti-money laundering laws] because it did not take reasonable steps to make sure it is not illicit funds,” alleged Rafizi.

“This is not just about [Sabah Chief Minister] Musa Aman, this is going all the way up to Najib, because as the number one in Umno, it was his duty,” he added. Other individuals who should be investigated, he said, included Musa, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz and any other leader who had knowledge about this transaction but failed to report to BNM.

Rafizi said BNM should also find out about the Umno leader “X” as mentioned by Tuaran MP Wilfred Bumburing to have received the money into the personal account. He said that BNM could look at Section 3(1), 14(b), and 16(3) of the Act. He said the legislation stated that if a person did not take reasonable measures to ascertain the source of money he receives, and it was subsequently found to be illegal, that person had automatically breached anti-money laundering laws. He added that the Act also states that it was also the banks’ responsibility to report such suspicious transactions to BNM, said Rafizi.

“It is not enough for BNM to be satisfied with the short explanation of Najib and Nazri that the money was a political donation,” he said. Rafizi said that the Act also required the authorities to act when a proxy or frontman was used in these fund transfers.

The PKR leader also quoted a BNM circular called ECM4 that any transactions outside of the country above RM200,001 must be declared to BNM.

Report lodged in Sabah as well

Meanwhile, PKR-friendly NGO Jingga 13 lodged a similar report in Kota Kinabalu with the Sabah BNM branch.

According to the NGO’s coordinator Fariz Musa, the branch initially refused to accept their report and only after repeated attempts and instructions from BNM in Kuala Lumpur, was the report allowed.

Musa was hit by the scandal when Michael Chia, a businessman linked to the chief minister, was reportedly detained at an airport by Hong Kong authorities in 2008 with RM40 million worth of cash on him. 

Recently, Nazri told Parliament that the money was a political fund meant for Sabah Umno and Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had cleared Musa of any wrongdoings.

In a twist, Nazri later claimed Chia was never arrested by ICAC.

Nazri further said the RM40 million seized from Chia and frozen was wired into an account and was not in the businessman’s possession as claimed by the opposition and reported in the media. Yesterday, Bumburing claimed that the RM40 million “political donation” to Sabah Umno was being held in a personal account of an Umno leader. He did not name the person. It was reported that Chia told ICAC that the money was supposedly for Musa.