KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said today that there was no issue if the anti-graft agency was not part of a purported new taskforce set up to investigate 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Seri Shukri Abdull, however, said it was up to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to verify yesterday’s report by Chinese-language paper Sin Chew Daily about a new taskforce called the National Revenue Recovery Enforcement Team (NRRET) that comprises the AGC, the police, Bank Negara, the Customs Department and the Inland Revenue Board.
“If true, I and MACC have no problem. We will carry our job as [an] independent body in fighting corruption,” Shukri told Malay Mail Online.
The police recently cracked down on the MACC, arresting several senior officers and raiding their homes and offices, on suspicion of leaking documents on its probe on former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, from which RM42 million reportedly originated and moved through other companies, before ending up in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts.
Newly-appointed Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali shut down a special taskforce that had been investigating allegations that almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was moved around companies linked to the state-owned 1MDB and also ended up in Najib’s personal bank accounts, two months before the 13th general election in May 2013.
The multi-agency taskforce had comprised the AGC headed then by Tan Sri Gani Patail, Bank Negara, the police and the MACC.
The MACC has said that the RM2.6 billion did not come from 1MDB, but was a donation from donors from the Middle East, without disclosing their identities.
The AGC has yet to respond to Malay Mail Online’s request for clarification of the Sin Chew report at press time.
Claims of the money trail were first reported in US-based paper Wall Street Journal on July 2.
Najib has denied using public funds for personal gain. - Malay Mail
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