“There Was No Offence Committed By The 1MDB Officials” – Attorney General Concludes On Bank Negara Probe

(Malaysian Digest) – The Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) had also released a public announcement on the status of the various agencies investigations yesterday in response to the widely reported statement by the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal on behalf of the Malay Rulers on 1MDB.

The AGC statement wanted to point out certain facts of ongoing investigations which might have been misconstrued in widely distorted media reports on 1MDB that could have a bearing on the Malay Rulers official stance.

“The Task Force on investigations into 1MDB has never been dissolved or disbanded and the AGC has never made any statement to that effect. In fact the investigations conducted by the respective agencies were never at any time halted or hindered.

“The Attorney General has been constantly monitoring and giving instructions to the relevant agencies whenever the investigations were referred to the AGC, including instructions to expedite investigations.

“As of today the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have not completed their investigations as some key witnesses’ statements have yet to be recorded,” the AGC noted.

The statement went on to explain how the separate probe by Bank Negara (referred to as Central Bank of Malaysia in the AGC statement) had been completed.

“As for the Central Bank of Malaysia (CBM), the investigation was conducted into 1MDB for an offence under paragraph (4)(b) of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the Exchange Control Act 1953 namely, knowingly or recklessly making a statement which is false in a material particular. The investigation paper (IP) was submitted to the AGC on 21 August 2015.

“Having studied the IP, the Deputy Solicitor General 1, Datuk Tun Abd Majid bin Tun Hamzah, decided that there was no offence committed by the 1MDB officials and directed that no further action should be taken. The IP was returned to CBM on 11 September 2015. Hence the decision had been communicated to CBM on the same day.

“However, on 1 October 2015 CBM transmitted a letter of request to AGC to have the decision reviewed. Having considered the request and the fact that there was no new evidence made available, the Attorney General decided to maintain the decision made earlier.”

The statement concluded by stressing that media reports alleging that the AGC had not come to any decision on the outcome of the Bank Negara investigation was incorrect as the investigation has been concluded.

“In this respect, the AGC would like to state that what had been in the news between 12 September 2015 until today concerning the IP still being with AGC and that discussions were ongoing, is inaccurate and not true.”