KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — After Malaysia’s
attorney general cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of corruption
charges involving hundreds of millions of dollars that ended up in his
bank accounts, Mr. Najib issued a statement of his own.
“The matter has been comprehensively put to rest,” he said last week. “It is time for us to unite and move on.”
That has not happened.
Instead of answering the questions about the money and its possible links to a heavily indebted Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, the attorney general’s announcement has only sharpened them.
The
attorney general, Mohamed Apandi Ali, said the largest sum in question,
$681 million, was “a personal donation” from the Saudi royal family,
most of which — $620 million — was later returned because it was not
used.
“It’s
not logical at all,” said Azral Shah, 28, a computer network analyst
taking a cigarette break outside a Kuala Lumpur high-rise this week.
“I’m not sure what is the true story, but most of the nation doesn’t
think that what they are telling us is true.”
Indeed, the attorney general’s statement has been overshadowed by fresh doubts, whether in Malaysia or Saudi Arabia.
“There
is no clear explanation as to how this huge sum of money was moved into
Najib’s accounts, the banks used by these Arabs, the sources of the
fund, the business of the donor,” Mahathir Mohamad, a former Malaysian prime minister who has become one of Mr. Najib’s harshest critics, wrote on his blog.
In Saudi Arabia,
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that he accepted the attorney
general’s opinion that there had been no wrongdoing, but he also said
that he did not think that the money had come from the Saudi government
or that it was a political donation.
“It
is a private Saudi citizen, I believe, and the funds went to an
investment in Malaysia,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
One
member of the royal family and one associate of the family, speaking on
the condition of anonymity, said that the money had come from a Saudi
prince and confirmed that it was not a donation. The associate
questioned the reported sum but said the funds were part of a business
deal.
The
attorney general’s decision shut down an investigation by Malaysia’s
anticorruption commission, leading the panel to seek a review of the
ruling, and the country’s former law minister filed suit to reverse it.
The
decision has not stopped international inquiries. Hong Kong, Singapore,
Switzerland and the United States are investigating transactions
involving the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. Mr. Najib set up the fund and is the chairman of its advisory board.
The Swiss attorney general’s office said on Friday
that its investigation had found serious evidence that suggested that
$4 billion had been misappropriated from Malaysian state-owned
companies. Some of that money was transferred into bank accounts of
former Malaysian officials and former and current officials from the
United Arab Emirates, the Swiss authorities say.
The
announcement said the Swiss were looking into several business deals
between United Arab Emirates state-owned companies and 1MDB, as well as
allegations involving a small oil company called PetroSaudi that carried
out a joint venture with 1MDB.
On Monday, Singapore said it had seized “a large number of bank accounts” in connection with the investigations.
Opposition
politicians in Malaysia have demanded that Mr. Apandi, the attorney
general, prove that 1MDB was not used as Mr. Najib’s political slush
fund.
The
question for Mr. Apandi was “how did he satisfy himself that, even if
the funds deposited into the prime minister’s personal bank accounts
came from the mysterious Arab donor, the money did not originate from
1MDB?” said Tony Pua, an opposition member of Parliament from the
Democratic Action Party.
Mr. Apandi, appointed by Mr. Najib
in the summer, has declined to answer questions or release details of
his investigation. “I stand by my decision,” he said by text message.
“No further comment.”
Nor
has Mr. Najib publicly explained the money, though he has said that he
had done nothing wrong and took no money for personal gain. The Swiss
attorney general’s office said he was not one of the officials
identified in their investigation.
Mr.
Apandi has said that his office will cooperate with the Swiss inquiry,
though some Malaysian officials complained that the Swiss announcement
could strain bilateral ties and create bias in the news media. 1MDB says
that it has not been contacted by foreign legal authorities, but it
would cooperate with any investigation.
But if Mr. Apandi’s version of events is true, that raises other troubling questions.
A
political donation of $681 million, equal to about 2.6 billion
Malaysian ringgit, would be an exorbitant sum in Malaysian politics. An
American presidential campaign costs about $1 billion. Malaysia has less
than a tenth the population of the United States.
Such
a large donation would not necessarily be illegal. Malaysian law
restricts candidates for Parliament to about $50,000 a campaign, but
there are no limits on spending by political parties or curbs on
overseas funding.
If
the donation was aboveboard, it may have taken a circuitous route.
Malaysian investigators said the $681 million was transferred to Mr.
Najib’s accounts in two deposits from a British Virgin
Islands-registered company through a Swiss bank owned by an Abu Dhabi
sovereign wealth fund, according to published reports.
The
funds arrived in 2013, when Mr. Najib’s party, which has led Malaysia
since its independence from Britain in 1957, faced a powerful election
challenge. What some analysts have described as an orgy of campaign
spending helped the party win a tight race.
Members
of Mr. Najib’s cabinet have previously described the funds as political
donations, and at least one prominent party member has acknowledged
receiving funds from Mr. Najib.
“By
the very fact that his party members have admitted they got a lot of
money from the prime minister to run their campaigns, it’s an admission
that they are privy to sources of funding, which they have not
disclosed,” said Terence Gomez, a professor at the University of Malaya
who researches money in the nation’s politics. “Now it’s been exposed,
and we find out that a foreign country is supporting the prime minister
and the party.”
At
the same time, the attorney general suggested that Mr. Najib did not
need $681 million for the election since he returned most of it. Mr.
Apandi did not say how, when or to whom the money was returned, nor what
Mr. Najib did with the remaining $61 million.
In
his news conference, the attorney general also addressed another
deposit in Mr. Najib’s account, about $13 million that was transferred
from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB now owned by the
Finance Ministry, which Mr. Najib controls. Mr. Apandi said that there
was no evidence Mr. Najib “had any knowledge” of the deposit.
Mr. Najib has not commented on the transaction.
“They’ve
stopped caring about whether the story makes any sense,” said Ambiga
Sreenevasan, a lawyer and former president of the Malaysian Bar Council.
“They just want the image of closure.”
Despite
public concerns, Mr. Najib seems to have consolidated his position,
last year dismissing a deputy prime minister who raised questions about
the 1MDB scandal. Likewise, Mukhriz Mahathir, the son of Mr. Mahathir
and a leading critic of Mr. Najib, was ousted on Wednesday as the top
official of a federal state, in what he called retribution for publicly
criticizing Mr. Najib.
But
the slowing economy, the low price of oil and a recently introduced tax
on goods and services as well as the continuing 1MDB scandal have
dampened broader public support, said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the
Merdeka Center, an independent polling agency in Malaysia. Mr. Najib is
likely to face a tough challenge to retain his position in elections
expected in 2018.
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