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1MDB says not involved with US$1b in Najib's accounts
Published:  Mar 1, 2016 3:00 PM
Updated: 9:53 AM

Following another allegation from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today, 1MDB has repeated its assertion that it had not paid any funds into the personal bank accounts of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak

WSJ had reported that over US$1 billion had been deposited into Najib's personal bank accounts, including the RM2.6 billion which Najib and Malaysian authorities said was a political donation from Saudi Arabia.

The US daily also claimed that most of the US$1 billion originated from 1MDB and not from Saudi Arabia.

"1MDB has consistently maintained that it has not paid any funds to the personal accounts of the prime minister," it said to Malaysiakini in an e-mail earlier today.

This has been repeated by multiple authorities in Malaysia, including the MACC and the Attorney-General's Chambers, 1MDB said.

Despite all this, it noted that WSJ continued to repeat the same allegations without offering any conclusive evidence to support its claims.

"The only justification for their continued attacks is information that they claim to have obtained from unnamed and anonymous sources.

"This reliance on anonymous sources, who may or may not exist, betrays a lack of basic journalistic standards on the part of The Wall Street Journal and the fact that the publication has lost all semblance of balanced reporting," 1MDB said.

1MDB, which is Najib's brainchild, has consistently denied that it made any payments to Najib.

The state-owned investment fund is also currently being investigated for alleged corruption in several countries including Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the US.

Najib has repeatedly denied allegations that he received money from 1MDB and has denounced WSJ's reports as malicious and false.

Several ministers have also criticised WSJ over its reporting on this issue.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has cleared the prime minister of any criminal wrongdoing in regard to the RM2.6 billion donation as well as the RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Apandi also said that most of the RM2.6 billion had been returned.

A spokeswoman for WSJ said, “We continue to stand behind our fair and accurate reporting of this evolving story".

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