MALAYSIANS WILL HATE YOU MORE, RAFIZI WARNS NAJIB: Arab tale can't hide RM42mil in PM's accounts'

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli believes the government may 'spin' the RM2.6 billion saga as donations from well-heeled Middle East figures to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ahead of the last general election.

However, he said "it cannot hide the fact" that RM42 million from SRC International was transferred post-GE13 into the prime minister's personal bank accounts.

"This money originates clearly from a government fund and there is no justification whatsoever that it can ever go to a personal account, least of all the PM's accounts.

"I caution Umno's leadership not to try to hoodwink the public with the Arab money fairy tale to bury the 1MDB scandal because the money trail from SRC into PM's account is all too clear for everyone to see," he told Malaysiakini.

Over the past few days, Najib and his supporters have been marketing the political donation claim in order to dispel corruption allegations regarding the RM2.6 billion issue.

The matter exploded after The Wall Street Journal, in a July 3 article, claimed that a total of US$681,999,976 (RM2.6 billion) was allegedly wire transferred by an Abu Dhabi fund Aabar into Najib's private AmBank account in Kuala Lumpur on March 2013, two months before the May 2013 general election.

This sparked off claims that the money was spent for election campaign.

However, the WSJ also reported that RM42 million was purportedly transferred from SRC International into Najib's three private accounts at AmPrivate Banking.

SRC International Sdn Bhd is a former subsidiary of 1MDB, which is now under the Finance Ministry..

According to reports, SRC International had transferred RM10 million on Feb 10, 2015, into the account number of 'Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Hj Abd Razak' at AmPrivate Bank for a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.

There were allegedly two earlier transfers of RM27 million and RM5 million on Dec 26, 2014.

The WSJ report quoted information obtained from Malaysian investigators.

MACC vows not to back down

Last week, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said it would not back down from its probe into SRC International.

"With or without the special task force (probing 1MDB), with the absence of Abdul Gani Patail, MACC assures the investigation on SRC International will continue until completion," said the commission.

Last Monday, Abdul Gani was suddenly removed as attorney-general due to health problems.

However, Abdul Gani himself appeared clueless about this but refused to comment on whether it was related to the 1MDB special task force.

The following day, Najib reshuffled his cabinet and dropped his number two Muhyiddin Yassin and another minister Mohd Shafie Apdal, who have been vocal critics of 1MDB.

The premier also appointed four out of eight BN lawmakers in the Public Accounts Committee - including its then chief Nur Jazlan Mohamed - into his cabinet.

These sweeping changes ignited speculation that it was an attempt to derail both the special task force and PAC probes into 1MDB.

In a blog post, veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin, who has close ties with former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, wondered if Abdul Gani was removed because he was on the verge of charging certain individuals.

Meanwhile, Najib has always maintained that he did not use public funds for personal gain while his camp had accused certain individuals of plotting to topple the prime minister. - M'kini