KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Popular clothing shop Jakel Trading said today that money suspected to have been funnelled from scandal-tainted 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) by Datuk Seri Najib Razak was legit payment for several orders made by the former prime minister and his office when he was in power.
The textile retailer and its subsidiary Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd were both among 41 recipients publicly named by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in its civil forfeiture suit to recover RM270 million suspected to have been stolen from the sovereign investment fund.
“Let it be clear that the transactions referred to were orders that we received from the former Prime Minister and also from the previous Prime Minister’s office (“PMO”) for Jakel to supply jubah fabrics that the former Prime Minister and PMO had organised for all their charity programmes,” the entreprise said in a statement.
It said the fabric sold was to be made into robes for 14,254 imams, 138,746 committee members and other religious officials at over 7,000 mosques and institutions nationwide as well as to clothe victims of floods between 2014 and 2011.
Jakel highlighted that the money transfer was made after delivery of its goods and “well before any issues pertaining to 1MDB came to our knowledge” and that it has proper documents to support the transactions.
“All payments for goods sold or delivered we accept in good faith and we are not in a position to question the source of said funds unless there was clear evidence that the same were ill-gotten funds.
“Any issue of money laundering is totally beyond our knowledge,” it added.
Jakel said it has provided MACC all the relevant documents related to the transactions.
It added that it will continue to co-operate with the authorities in their investigations.
“Our stand is very clear, to offer our utmost commitment and cooperation towards the government and MACC in order to restore Jakel’s image. In Allah we trust,” it said.
The MACC filed civil forfeiture applications against 41 individuals and entities on Tuesday to recover RM270 million allegedly transferred from Najib’s private AmBank account has put 12 businesses named under the microscope.
The Pekan MP has since taken to Facebook to defend Jakel Trading and the money transferred into its accounts.
