Singapore Central Bank Cooperating With Malaysia on Probe Involving Najib

A special task force comprising Bank Negara, the Attorney General, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating the 1MDB trail.

Mr Abdul Gani Patail also said a freeze order issued on bank accounts on July 6 did not involve any bank accounts allegedly held by Mr Najib.

The Wall Street Journal report, citing documents from a government investigation, said there were five deposits into Najib’s account.

The crisis is the biggest to hit Mr Najib since he came to power in 2009 and has contributed to a fall in the ringgit. Falcon Private Bank has reportedly confirmed that it is in contact with Singaporean authorities and would “cooperate to allow full transparency”.

His legal firm, Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, said it was now identifying “facts to proceed with further instructions” by way of the parties involved in the writing, distributing and publishing the article.

In the letter addressed to WSJ’s board of directors, Dow Jones and Company Inc, his lawyers gave WSJ 14 days to respond to the letter.

Financial woes at 1MDB led it in February to announce plans to wind down much of its business.

IGP Khalid told reporters this morning that the police were investigating how the Wall Street Journal obtained access to bank documents which it uploaded on its website yesterday. The Auditor- General said last week it completed an interim report and will submit it on July 9 to a parliamentary committee that’s also probing 1MDB.

The claims about the payments have prompted calls for Najib’s resignation or for him to take a leave of absence. Najib, he said, has survived a decade of scandals as defense minister and prime minister.

Muhyiddin Yassin, the 68-year-old UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister who has been waging a behind-the-scenes campaign against Najib in league with ex- Premier Mahathir Mohamad, is said by friends to be increasingly confident that “the Teflon prime minister”, as one source said, will be forced to stand down.

“My colleague went to the eight floor and he saw guards in black jackets who were clearing off people from the floor”, he said, adding that the colleague was “quite certain” that the men in jackets were not building guards. “He has to be convicted of a serious crime to be forced out”.