KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — The recent expose claiming that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was funnelled into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts from state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is part of an agenda of “political sabotage”, the prime minister’s office (PMO) claimed today.

In a short official statement, the PMO pointed to “concerted efforts by certain individuals to undermine confidence in our economy, tarnish the government, and remove a democratically elected Prime Minister”, despite Najib having successfully steered the country through global financial turbulence.

“These latest claims, attributed to unnamed investigators as a basis to attack the Prime Minister, are a continuation of this political sabotage,” the statement read.

“It has been reported that criminal leaking of documents, doctoring and extortion has taken place to mislead the media and public.

“So it is incumbent on responsible members of the media not to accept documents as genuine unless verified by the appropriate authorities,” the PMO said, adding that 1MDB has since stated that it has never provided funds to Najib.

In its report today, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing documents allegedly sourced from Malaysian investigators currently scrutinising the troubled 1MDB’s financials, claimed that the money trail shows that some US$700 million were moved between government agencies, banks and companies before it ended up in Najib’s accounts.

These documents, the international business paper claimed, include bank transfer forms and flowcharts put together by investigators to shed light on 1MDB’s cash flow.

The paper said this is the first time a direct connection to Najib has been established in the probe on 1MDB.

WSJ, which claimed to have viewed the documents, said investigators have discovered that there were five separate deposits from two sources made so far into Najib’s accounts.

The paper added, however, that the original source of the funds is unclear and that the investigation does not show what happened to the money after it was deposited into Najib’s accounts.

The largest two transactions, it said, were for US$621 million and US$61 million allegedly made in March 2013, shortly before the tumultuous Election 2013 in May.

A Malaysian government spokesman, however, told the paper that Najib has never taken 1MDB funds for personal use.

1MDB is currently under probe for alleged impropriety by a number of agencies, including the Auditor-General’s (A-G) Department, the police and Bank Negara Malaysia.

An interim report on the A-G’s probe will be submitted next Thursday to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.