Najib and a Cabinet Minister tried to arm-twist former Central Bank governor Zeti Aziz into aiding the ex-PM in covering the RM2.6 billion found in his account.
This was revealed by Zeti in a statement today over Najib’s allegations that Zeti knew about the funds in his AmBank account.
Many have questioned Zeti over the apparent lack of action by the Bank Negara against Najib when the story broke out.
However, this is the first time Zeti gave details of Najib’s attempt to cover up the scandal at the early stages.
Zeti said Najib had called her to his office.
“In fact, on 3 July 2015, I was called to the Prime Minister’s office. He made a request for me to issue a statement that he had done nothing wrong in his account.
“I informed him that I cannot issue such a statement because I did not have knowledge of transactions that had occurred in his account.
“I later received a call from another Cabinet Minister who made the same request for me to issue such a statement,” said Zeti.
She said she gave the Minister the same answer that I cannot issue any such statement because I did not have knowledge of what had transpired in his account.
“I wish to categorically state that this claim is false. I had no knowledge of this RM2.6 billion remitted into his account,” insisted Zeti.
On the matter relating to transactions by account holders in the banking system, Zeti said Bank Negara Malaysia relies on information provided by the reporting financial institutions.
“The banking community is fully aware of the regulations and guidelines governing the reporting of any suspicious transactions and for the necessary due diligence on the operations of any such accounts.
“Unless the relevant banking institution reports to BNM of irregularities in an account or if BNM received a tip-off that gives a reason to believe that an offence has occurred, the Central Bank is not able to initiate an investigation into the account.” she said.