Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(July 8): Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has ordered an investigation into the leakage of confidential investigation-related information to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), saying he will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible for this.

In a statement today, Abdul Gani said the documents disclosed in the WSJ article, “Malaysia Orders Freeze of Accounts Tied to Probe of Alleged Transfers to Prime Minister Najib” dated 7 July, were the subject-matter of an investigation.

He said it was crucial to preserve the integrity of the investigation as the public must not doubt the investigation.

"This was not a question of whistle-blowing because the matter is already under investigation," he said, adding that a further concern was that the documents were allegedly leaked from within the investigation itself.

In its first report on US700 million being pumped into Najib’s private account, the WSJ had quoted from documents from the 1MDB probe carried out by the Malaysian government,

It had claimed that the AG was also aware of the information.

The documents show that US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) was moved among government agencies, banks and entities linked to 1MDB and finally ending up in the prime minister's personal accounts in five separate deposits.

It said that the largest transactions were deposits of US$620 million and another one for US$61 million in March 2013, two months before the general election.

Yesterday, the WSJ had backed its report by releasing documentation of the bank transactions.

Abdul Gani today emphasised that he would not hesitate to prosecute  any person found to have leaked confidential investigation-related information as it is a criminal offence under section 133 of the Financial Services Act 2013 and section 145 of the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013.

The provisions in these Acts make it an offence for anyone in a bank to disclose private information of its customers.

He said it was also a criminal offence under section 203A of the Penal Code which makes it an offence. – The Malaysian Insider

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