Ex-PM Najib Razak received money transfers from 1MDB despite denying the sovereign funds landed in his accounts.
A panel apparently launched by the new Mahathir administration told Reuters the MACC found evidence in late 2015 that RM42 million (US$10.6 million) was transferred from a former subsidiary of state fund 1MDB into an account of the then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
The panel is reviewing the evidence on 1MDB.
But it said the attorney-general Apandi Ali refused to consider recommendations by the anti-corruption agency to further investigate the transaction, a member of a panel that reviewed the commission’s case files told Reuters.
The new probe team did not say whether more evidence exists of The famous RM2.6 billion or US$681 million of funds deposited in his personal bank account were from the 1MDB.
Najib who lost the elections last week had insisted the fund is a donation from a Saudi royal. The US$10.6 million would be in addition to that sum.
In an interview with Reuters, panel member Lim Chee Wee said then attorney-general, Apandi Ali, had been presented with evidence by MACC at the end of 2015 that Najib had received the US$10.6 million from 1MDB unit SRC International.
Apandi, who was replaced as attorney-general on Monday, declined to probe further, Lim said.
“AG refused to investigate further despite evidence suggesting that Najib received directly or indirectly RM42 million from SRC,” Lim said, using the acronym for the attorney-general.
The SRC International Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of 1MDB that was later placed under the Finance Ministry in 2012, is part of the ongoing global investigation.
The Swiss office of the Attorney General in an email to Malaysiakini reaffirmed that SRC’s funds are part of its ongoing investigations.
“SRC investments are also investigated in the frame of the criminal proceedings opened in August 2015,” it said.
The SRC phase, like the three other phases detailed in the DOJ filing, started off with a massive fundraising exercise.
Part of SRC funds diverted locally
The SRC phase is unique as some parts of the transactions took place wholly in Malaysia, unlike the other phases where the sum were routed overseas, said Malaysiakini.
In terms of local transactions, at least RM74 million originating from SRC International made its way into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts.
These local transactions happened after SRC International was no longer a subsidiary of 1MDB when it was placed under the Finance Ministry in 2012.