KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Following Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) latest exposé on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malay group today pressed the police to probe the private accounts of members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for traces of an alleged sale of confidential information on the state investment firm.

Hamdan Mohd Salleh, secretary-general of Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM), said he had this afternoon lodged a report to demand a probe the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members’ personal bank accounts.

“This is because I suspect that it is highly likely that there were sales transactions on confidential 1MDB documents to Wall Street Journal,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted, saying that these information were only known to the PAC.

“This is a malicious act to topple the government and malign the image of the country’s leaders,” he added.

Hamdan said the report was lodged at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters at 4pm.

Yesterday, US-based WSJ published a report claiming that the United Arab Emirates has raised questions on a US$1.4 billion (RM6 billion) payment from 1MDB that allegedly did not reach the country’s sovereign fund, International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).

In its article, WSJ claimed to have sighted a draft report by the Auditor General on 1MDB as well as a transcript of proceedings held by a parliamentary committee investigating the issue.

1MDB issued a statement yesterday in response to the report, defending their audits and expressing their concern over an alleged attempt to “prejudice the PAC investigations and deny 1MDB its right to due process as provided for by the laws of Malaysia”.

Earlier today, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak similarly urged for an investigation on the source of information that WSJ had used in its report yesterday.

“We have to investigate the source of their information. If it is from the PAC, we must of course investigate who among the members leaked the information,” he added.

Salleh said if WSJ had truly sourced information for the report from a member of the PAC as alleged by 1MDB yesterday, the act was ill-intended and unfair to the Malaysian government and 1MDB.

The minister also said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission will take action against the US-based publication if its report on 1MDB yesterday is based on “invalid” information, but did not specify what actions will be taken.