Action depends on outcome of police probe, says IGP
KUALA LUMPUR: The decision to summon anyone over possible criminal breach of trust and cheating during Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange (forex) losses in 1990s will depend on the outcome of the police investigation.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the investigation was still fresh following the release of a Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the matter on Thursday.
As such, he said, the public should not speculate.
Asked if police would call up former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as well as former finance ministers Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tun Daim Zainuddin any time soon, Fuzi said this would depend on the outcome of the investigation.
“A police report has been lodged. We formed a task force and investigations are under way. This is a high-profile case. We will investigate and update (the public) from time to time.”
Fuzi said investigations had been taken over by a federal police task force led by Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Amar Singh.
He said the case was being investigated under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust.
Following an exposé by the New Straits Times, where former BNM assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid revealed that the central bank had actually suffered US$10 billion in losses, the RCI was subsequently established.
On Thursday, its secretary Datuk Dr Yusof Ismail, who is also the Finance Ministry’s Strategic Investment Division director, lodged a report at the Putrajaya police headquarters.
In the police report, it was stated that those involved in the alleged wrongdoings were BNM officers, BNM board members, the National Audit Department, the Finance Ministry and the prime minister who served during the period.
The RCI, in its 528page report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, said it believed that Anwar, who was finance minister at that time, had misled the government and concealed the actual losses suffered by BNM.
RCI said it believed that Dr Mahathir, the prime minister at the time, had approved Anwar’s “misleading statements”.
The commission revealed that the losses were far higher than what was initially reported by BNM — RM31.5 billion as against RM5.7 billion — in three years.
The RCI, in its report, had requested the police to start an official investigation on possible criminal breach of trust, forgery and other wrongdoings that might have been committed during the forex activities. By Hani Shamira Shahrudin