NAJIB DID NOT VERIFY SOURCE OF RM2.6B
He admits being unsure of the source of the money he had claimed to be a donation
FORMER prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claims he did not verify the source of the RM2.6 billion donation banked into his personal account, taking it at face value that it came from Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with Al Jazeera to be aired today, Najib said he had assumed the donation was connected to Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud had assured him of his backing.
“The question is, when I received the funds, was I aware of the source of the money… or whether the source of the money is in dispute as to who owns the funds. Certainly, in my capacity, I would not have access to banking knowledge.
“Because whoever owns the fund is protected by the secrecy of the banking laws, so when I received the funds, in all honesty, I thought it was a genuine donation and, at that particular time, the knowledge that I had was based on a conversation with King Abdullah,” he told Al Jazeera’s Mary Ann Jolley.
Najib claimed ignorance despite Jolley highlighting that the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) report revealed that there was a paper trail and that he was already prime minister at the time of the donation.
“Yeah, but prime ministers do not have access to banking information,” he said about the RM2.6 billion, which he is being charged for receiving as a “donation”.
In September, Najib uploaded several documents related to the funds channelled to him by the late Saudi king to back his claims that the funds were donations from the Saudi royal family.
Najib shared three documents from King Abdullah, one of which bore the words “Recognition of Contribution to the Islamic World”, dated Feb 1, 2011. Two other documents were financial transaction statements dated Feb 24, 2011 and on Nov 25, 2011.
Najib lost his cool several times when he was grilled during the hour-long session.
The former Barisan Nasional chairman, who was clearly irritated when he was questioned about the 22-carat pink diamond necklace worth US$27.3 million that
was allegedly bought with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) money, maintained that it was a gift from a prince from the United Arab Emirates.
He said the prince, Sheikh Mansour, brother of Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Zayed, who is also chairman of the International Petroleum Investment Company, presented it to his wife.
“We know that Jho Low (Low Taek Jho) was a close associate of Sheikh Mansour,” he said, insisting it was a gift from Sheikh Mansour, which his wife did not receive.
“It’s a matter of dispute what happened to the pink diamond. So let’s not jump to conclusions.”
Najib lashed out when pressed about Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor meeting Low and whether what the DoJ said about the necklace being a gift from Low was true.
“We didn’t know. As far as we were concerned, it was a gift from Sheikh Mansour, who would know where it came from and who paid for it. We wouldn’t know! We did not know the value of the present.”
On his stepson Riza Aziz’s funding of the Hollywood movie Wolf of Wall Street and the property he acquired using funds the DoJ alleged were from 1MDB, Najib said Riza had always been a movie buff and was already into the industry when the movie was made.
“Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed told him in my presence that he was going to invest in his movies. We assumed that whatever investment that was going to come from Abu Dhabi to fund it would be a loan.
“And my stepson was prepared to pay back every single cent that was given to him as a loan because it was a loan and he was prepared to pay back.”
Najib maintained that he was telling the truth.
“No, I mean, in all honesty, that’s the truth. I mean, there’s nothing I can do if people don’t believe it, but that’s the honest truth because my track record as prime minister, I can stand by it because this country has developed by leaps and bounds during my tenure.”
When Jolley asked why she was deported while covering a story on Altantuya Shaariibuu in Malaysia, he said “good thing we deported you. You are a nuisance. Because as far as I am concerned... fabricating lies is nothing we want to tolerate in this country.”