NFC boss claims PKR man broke the law
PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli has been accused of 21 breaches under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989.
(Free Malaysia Today) – PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli has made banking history in Malaysia after a police report was lodged against him under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA) by National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) Sdn Bhd chairman Mohamad Salleh Ismail.
In his report, Salleh accused Rafizi of 21 breaches for revealing private and confidential banking details that were protected under Part XIII, Secrecy and Information.
Rafizi, who has been at the forefront of the NFCorp scandal expose, had distributed to the media the banking details and credit ratings of NFCorp, National Meat and Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd, Real Food Company Sdn Bhd and Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd as well as the personal banking details of the directors and shareholders, including Salleh’s.
Rafizi had further pointed out that Salleh had used NFCorp’s public funds to secure a personal loan to purchase eight shop office units at KL Eco City and that Salleh had been constantly defaulting on his loan repayments.
It is believed that this divulging of private banking details is the first time in Malaysia’s banking history, a violation that carries a penalty of three years imprisonment and a RM3 million fine.
Section 96 of the BAFIA stated that “Except as provided in section 43 (2), and without prejudice to the powers of inspection, examination, investigation or inquiry conferred on the Bank or on an investigating officer under this Act, nothing in thisAct shall — (a) authorise the Minister to direct the Bank; or (b) authorise the Bank, to inquire specifically into the affairs of any individual customer of any licensed institution.”
Section 97 of the Act provided that, “No director or officer of any licensed institution or of any external bureau established, or any agent appointed, by the licensed institution to undertake any part of its business, whether during his tenure of office, or during his employment, or thereafter, and no person who for any reason, has by any means access to any record, book, register, correspondence, or other document whatsoever, or material, relating to the affairs or, in particular, the account, of any particular customer of the institution, shall give, produce, divulge, reveal, publish or otherwise disclose, to any person, or make a record for any person, of any information or document whatsoever relating to the affairs or account of such customer.”
The same section also stated that, “No person who has any information or document which to his knowledge has been disclosed in contravention of subsection (1) shall in any manner howsoever disclose the same to any other person.”
In a statement today, NFCorp urged the police and Bank Negara to investigate these serious multiple contraventions of the BAFIA.
