Pua: Najib should address Parliament on SRC probe

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also Finance Minister, must answer crucial questions pertaining to SRC International, the former 1MDB subsidiary, during the two-week Parliamentary sitting commencing on Monday, said Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua in a statement.

Firstly, given all the “shenanigans” which took place in SRC International including the latest disclosure in Singapore, and the known fact that Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil has disappeared off the face of Malaysia for nearly a year, why is he still a Director and Managing Director of the company?

Secondly, his fellow director, Suboh Mohd Yassin has similarly disappeared from the country. “Why have they not been replaced by Ministry of Finance officials?” asked Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary.

Thirdly, given a Federal Government guaranteed RM4 billion loan taken from the Malaysian Pension Fund (KWAP), who exactly is running SRC International today?

Fourthly, is the company being run via remote control by fugitives?

Fifthly, if the Prime Minister really did not realize that the RM69 million deposited into his personal bank account came from SRC International, shouldn’t he have returned the money immediately? Again, stressed Pua, if Najib could be so “honest” as to return USD620 million of unutilised donation to his mysterious Arab donor, why could he not return the relatively paltry RM69 million?

Pua arrived at the RM69 million estimate based on a statement by Attorney-General (AG) Mohd Apandi Ali and a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). “The AG has confirmed that RM27 million, originating from SRC International, found its way into Najib’s personal account in July 2014.”

“The WSJ has alleged further that another RM42 million from SRC International was transferred via intermediaries into the Prime Minister’s account between December 2014 and March 2015.”

Hence, argued Pua, it can no longer be denied that Najib received at least RM69 million from SRC International, even if it was unwittingly received. “Why haven’t the funds been returned to SRC International?” he reiterated in his statement.

Amazingly, continued Pua, the AG said no charges will be filed against the Prime Minister for criminal breach of trust (CBT). “The excuse is that the Prime Minister did not know that the tens of millions deposited into his account came from SRC International.”

“However, in that case, why haven’t those involved in SRC International been investigated and charged for siphoning funds into Najib personal account?” asked Pua.

The Sarawak Report had earlier exposed that Nik Faisal was given Power of Attorney (PA) to manage Najib’s personal account, noted the MP. “This was a damning allegation which has not been denied by the Prime Minister.”

Pua was commenting on Singapore investigations shifting focus back to the clandestine operations of SRC International. If 1MDB was found by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to have suffered from gross mismanagement, “then stranger and more suspicious transactions appear to have taken place in SRC International”, he observed.

Singapore’s Business Times reported that the latest charge against former BSI banker Yeo Jia Wei was for facilitating, through fraudulent means, the transfer of USD11.95 million from SRC International to Affinity Equity International Partners Ltd, a company owned by Tan Kim Loong.

As international investigations begin to provide a clearer and more detailed picture of the scale of embezzlement via duplicitous transactions by 1MDB and SRC International, pointed out Pua, investigations in Malaysia on the other hand, have effectively ground to a halt. “While the focus of the international press and local critics has been aimed at the debt-ridden 1MDB, its former subsidiary SRC International has been kept relatively under the radar.”

Investigations by Singapore authorities have also revealed that Nik Faisal approved the transfer of USD11.95 million (RM48 million) of the company’s funds to Jho Low’s associate Tan.

Tan, according to the WSJ, was the original beneficiary of British Virgin Islands-based Tanore Finance, which had sent USD681 million to Najib’s personal bank accounts

Mukah Pages bring you trending news media with Free Malaysia Today http://ift.tt/27nvQcP