Break the silence on Zeti’s 1MDB links, says DAP man

Break the silence on Zeti’s 1MDB links, says DAP man

Lim Lip Eng calls on current BNM governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, her predecessor Zeti Akhtar Aziz and the MACC to respond to allegations.

The Edge has reported that Zeti Akhtar Aziz was the Bank Negara governor when the central bank was informed of suspicious movement of funds from accounts linked to Low Taek Jho.
PETALING JAYA:
The Bank Negara Malaysia governor, the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and former BNM governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz must all come clean on reports that the central bank knew of funds linked to fugitive Low Taek Jho going into the accounts of Zeti’s husband and son, an MP said.

In a Facebook post, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said it has been more than two days since the report surfaced and it was time for the authorities to break their silence.

He urged current BNM governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus to deny the allegations made by The Edge and state the actions that the central bank will take after the report.

“Secondly, MACC has to disclose if any investigation was carried out over the allegations, and whether the allegations are true or false.

“Thirdly, Zeti herself should disclose what legal action she or her family have taken, or will take, against the allegations,” he said.

On Saturday, The Edge reported that the Singapore police had informed BNM of suspicious transactions involving a company owned by Zeti’s husband and one of her sons, with the funds coming in from accounts linked to Low, more famously known as Jho Low.

It said, according to documents it had sighted, the Commercial Affairs Department had shared this information with the central bank in 2015 and 2016. Zeti was BNM governor when this information was relayed to it.

This involved suspicious funds going into the account of Iron Rhapsody Ltd, which was owned by Zeti’s husband, Dr Tawfiq Ayman, and a son who was not named.

“Several inflows of funds into this account triggered a suspicious transaction report, that took place in 2008 and 2009. But Bank Negara was only alerted in 2015 and 2016.

“Soon after this, investigators in Malaysia, Switzerland and the US launched probes into the theft and laundering of billions of dollars that belonged to 1MDB,” the report said.

The source of four of the transactions, it added, involved funds from profits that Low and his cohorts made from the RM5 billion 1MDB/TIA (Terengganu Investment Authority) bonds arranged by Ambank in 2009.

In December last year, Umno Youth lodged a report against Zeti and her family following a blog post claiming that they had received over RM100 million from Low, which included 1MDB funds.

According to the post, Zeti’s family members had allegedly executed statutory declarations in which they admitted to having received funds from Singapore bank accounts, and that they had come from a company linked to Low.

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