Has IGP taken PM’s statement yet on USD700m, asks MP

Ramkarpal Singh says police have recorded the statements of many others yet Najib Razak has remained silent over the WSJ allegations.

KUALA LUMPUR: While the police have recorded the statements of many individuals in regard to the expose of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal involving billions, the man at the centre of the controversy has not said a word about it and the people are as yet unsure if the Inspector-General of Police has recorded his statement, said Ramkarpal Singh today.

In a statement, the MP for Bukit Gelugor demanded that Khalid Abu Bakar make a public statement as to whether Prime Minister Najib Razak had been questioned by the police about the USD700 million of 1MDB funds that The Wall Street Journal alleged had been deposited into his private bank accounts.

Ramkarpal also said that in the event the PM’s statement had not been taken, then the IGP had to explain why this was so.

“Statements seem to have been recorded from just about everyone involved including attempts to procure one from Xavier Andre Justo in Thailand. As I have said before, it matters not who the personalities are in a criminal investigation as the law does not discriminate.”

Justo is a former PetroSaudi International employee now being investigated in Thailand for stealing confidential documents from the company he worked for pertaining to their dealings with 1MDB.

Saying that the 1MDB saga has reached a stage that threatened the economic stability of the nation, Ramkarpal added, “If answers are not forthcoming as to its truth or not, I fear this may have a detrimental effect on foreign investment in this country as surely, public confidence of the investigations of the issue is waning.”

He also touched on the letter of demand the PM’s lawyers sent the publisher of the WSJ soon after the expose, and which the latter had replied, saying no further clarification was required as the article spoke for itself.

“The said letter of demand from the Prime Minister’s solicitors seems to have achieved nothing more than further confusion as to whether the said USD700 million did in fact end up in his (Najib) accounts.”

He also called the move by the police to investigate Group CEO of The Edge Media Group, Ho Kay Tat under Section 124D of the Penal Code for running an expose on 1MDB and PSI involving billions, as “mind-boggling” because he said that according to the law, nothing Ho did was either “violent or unconstitutional”.

“The said publications, no matter how sensitive, were produced in the public interest on issues which concern the public at large,” Ramkarpal said, adding that those implicated in the article, particularly 1MDB had not even taken any legal action by way of injunction against The Edge to restrain it from further publishing such articles in the future.