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Bank Negara passes buck in RM2.6b scandal

YOURSAY ‘This is the most ridiculous statement coming from Bank Negara.’

Bank Negara: Najib's RM2.6b beyond our jurisdiction

Commentable: Bank Negara has wide investigating and enforcement powers under AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Act) and Bafia (Banking and Financial Institutions Act), so it is incredible that Bank Negara deputy governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus is suddenly so powerless when it comes to money in PM Najib Razak's personal account.

Has it anything to do with the fact that Najib happens to be the PM as well as the finance minister?

CQ Muar: It is puzzling why Nor Shamsiah said that the RM2.6 billion which ended into Najib's accounts is beyond Bank Negara’s jurisdiction.

Assuming an ordinary person executed a similar transfer involving few hundred thousand ringgit, would Nor Shamsiah furnish such similar reply? This is indeed the most ridiculous and preposterous statement coming from Bank Negara.

For that matter, any cash transfer must follow and abide to certain guidelines, rulings and standard requirement provided for, to rule out the possibility of money laundering.

Odin Tajué: Nor Shamsiah, like some of my fellow Malaysiakini readers, I have scant knowledge of banking matters. That being the case, the comment I am about to make is made from a layman's position and using basic logic.

Now, I would presume that Ambank ought to have informed your office of the depositing of vast sums of money into Najib's personal bank account in March 2013, and a further vast sum allegedly transferred out in August 2013.

Since your office has done nothing about the matter, we shall assume that the said bank has not done what it should have. Now that the incoming and outgoing transfers are known, why has no action been taken against Ambank?

We shall assume that no action has been taken against it because the recipient and the transferor is Najib. Meaning, he is above the law. Is that right or is that not right? Yes, I know. You won't answer.

Nor Shamsiah, I have a credit card issued by Citibank in New York. I don't use it much, as I usually pay for things in cash, and so my monthly bill has been relatively small - around RM1,000 or RM2,000.

When I make my payment using Giro, I am required to state where I have received my funds from. Remember, it's been only a couple of thousand ringgit or less.

But here you have Najib receiving and sending out US$650 million and above, and nothing has been done to determine how, why and where he has received the astronomical sums from.

You know what, Nor Shamsiah, I am very sure you are passing the buck to one another and at the same time trying to cover up for Najib.

Speaking of which, I am also sure the super-genius attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali has suddenly turned into a moron and thus have found it very difficult to understand the papers your boss has submitted to him.

Of course, we also know he is nothing more than a flunkey of Najib's. And like the sycophantic individual he is, the first thing he did on becoming AG was to issue threats to the hoi-polloi.

Kingfisher: Bank Negara's splendid isolation in such matters may be legitimate, rational and even protective of its professional neutrality.

But the adverse reaction towards the nation as the whole scandal lingered on and especially now with the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) at its very doorsteps repeatedly reminding Malaysians that what has transpired by this RM2.6 billion "donation" is conclusively a misdeed.

One hopes that Bank Negara will in future be given more clout to put right infringements to relevant national laws governing finance at the material time while monitoring such irregularities with appropriate enforcement action.

The opportunity cost to the nation in international "social capital" could have been avoided. Pray for the sake of Malaysia that this grilling at the IACC will not put Malaysia in an unfavourable position with international financial institutions as a suspect for money laundering.

Mushiro: With cowards and traitors like Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz and her deputy, Nor Shamsiah, the law is being abused to save Najib and save themselves too.

What happens when we see a thief stealing - do we wait for the police to come? Isn't there something called citizen's arrest?

RM2.6 billion went in someone's personal bank account and Bank Negara kept quiet about it from day 1?

Magnus: The suspect transactions in question took place in 2013, and I am sure there must have been many other suspect banking transactions before 2013.

The Wall Street Journal exposed the current matter of alleged corruption in 1MDB only this year, so did the Bank Negara governor check with her counterparts at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as to the progress of the investigations from 2013 and ask why, if it had been concluded, it had not resulted in any enforcement actions?

Or did the BN governor not take any follow-up action even when she must have known there was something seriously amiss with those massive movements of funds in and out of the prime minister's personal bank accounts?

GE14NOW!: So Nor Shamsiah says it is out of Bank Negara’s jurisdiction and the MACC will have to take over. The MACC, in an unsigned document, has said the RM2.6 billion was a donation.

It looks like Najib's has indeed won the title of being allegedly the most corrupt and manipulative PM this country has ever had.

Hmmmmmmmm: There was a report somewhere which listed Malaysia as the fifth largest source of funds leaving the country after China and Russia.

That alone speaks volumes of Bank Negara's competency. They are very efficient though when dealing with laymen sending money overseas for their children's education.


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