CIMB Islamic Bank's CEO Badlisyah Abdul Ghani will resign after publicly disputing documents used by The Wall Street Journal about fund transfers to the prime minister's personal bank accounts. – Photo courtesy of Facebook.
Badlisyah had initially said there was a discrepancy in the 'Swift' code mentioned in the documents that WSJ uploaded to the Internet to back up its July 2 report that some US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) had been transferred to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur.
He posted his analysis of the swift code on his Facebook account, saying that it was proof that the documents used by WSJ were "an absolute hoax", but later corrected it after news portal Malaysiakini pointed out his error.
CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak the next day said that Badlisyah would be investigated in an internal inquiry by the bank and apologised over the matter.
Nazir said Badlisyah had touched on a technical matter "on which he should not be commenting".
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, CIMB Islamic Bank said it has elected Mohd Shafri Shahul Hamid as person-in-charge of the bank and has agreed for the group nomination and remuneration committee to start the process of identifying the next chief executive officer for the bank, reported Bernama.
"We respect Badlisyah's decision," CIMB Islamic Bank chairman Datuk Dr Syed Muhammad Syed A Kadir said.
Badlisyah in his original analysis had also wrongly disputed the address of the Wells Fargo bank branch in New York, which Malaysiakini also pointed out.
Badlisyah admitted he made an error in his analysis and has since corrected it.
"I would like to make clear that all the views published on my Facebook account are strictly my PERSONAL views and not the views of any other individual or organisation. They were meant for private consumption among a group of friends.
“I would also like to acknowledge that I had made an error in my post with regard to my analysis of the various SWIFT codes.
"The mistakes were correctly pointed out by a report in Malaysiakini on the matter, and I have also made the correction on my Facebook page," said Badlisyah in a subsequent statement.
The WSJ posted the documents detailing the money trail online on July 8, and said it was sourced from a "Malaysian government investigation”.
Malaysian authorities have not confirmed the authenticity of the leaked documents but are probing into how the leak occurred.
The documents, with certain numbers redacted, include a remittance application form, a cash deposit authorisation letter and charts outlining the flow of money though companies linked to state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
In those forms, details of payment were listed as fund transfers for “CSR programmes”.
The biggest portion of funds – US$681 million – were allegedly transferred to Najib's personal bank accounts a little over a month before the general election in May 2013.
Najib has denied taking 1MDB money for personal gain but has not commented directly on the fund transfers.
A task force investigating 1MDB and the allegations, however, confirmed that he had two accounts at AmBank but they were closed before the WSJ report.
The task force has also frozen six bank accounts in its probe so far and also seized documents linked to 17 bank accounts at two banks for further investigation.
- TMI
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