KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — The US Department of Justice (DoJ) must name the complainants in its investigations into the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan said today.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said this was necessary so the public could tell how deeply involved the complainants were within the Opposition parties in their alleged agenda to overthrow Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“My suspicion is that these complainants are actually Malaysians with heinous political agenda against the Prime Minister and the government.
“Malaysians deserve to know who these complainants are and the DoJ should reveal their identities,” he said in a statement.
Commenting on the civil lawsuit, Abdul Rahman said the DoJ had every right to file a suit but it was important to base the case on facts and not on rhetoric or ill-intentioned statements.
“1MDB is not a party to the DoJ civil lawsuit. In fact, the assets that the DoJ alleges were wrongfully procured and seeks to seize, were in fact purchased by entities that are not legally owned nor controlled by 1MDB,” he said.
On Thursday, the DoJ announced its latest civil filing that sought to seize US$540 million (RM2.31 billion) in assets obtained by funds allegedly stolen from 1MDB. The latest civil forfeiture complaints from the lawsuit launched last July alleged that more than US$4.5 billion had been misappropriated from the Malaysian state investment firm from 2009 through 2015.
1MDB has since responded saying that the allegations were not backed with proof.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) subsequently said that it will leave the matter with the police to handle.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had said that no wrongdoing or misappropriation was found in 1MDB after the Malaysian firm was probed by various agencies, such as the MACC, the Auditor-General and the bi-partisan Public Accounts Committee.
