Whistleblower site Sarawak Report has made new revelations about transactions that have supposedly gone through Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts during the run-up to the 13th general election.
Among others, it claimed that Najib paid RM7 million to “Ketua Pengarah Perisikan Pertahanan” (director-general of the Defence Staff Intelligence Division, BSPP) on April 8, 2013, about a month before the May 5 general election.
“Perhaps Lt-General Datuk Abdul Hadi Bin Haji Hussin, who occupies the role, could explain why this service was receiving a personal cheque from the Prime Minister (paid out of 1MDB’s stolen money) just a month before the last election?” Sarawak Report posted in an email newsletter.
The BSPP is the joint military intelligence agency of the Malaysian Armed Forces. It reports directly to the chief of the Armed Forces.
Malaysiakini has contacted the Defence Ministry and the Malaysian Armed Forces on Sarawak Report’s allegations and is awaiting a response.
Sarawak Report claims that the figures on the transactions came from the joint task force that had investigated 1MDB since March 2015 until it was abruptly disbanded, five months later.
Malaysiakini is unable to independently verify the claim, whereas 1MDB has stated previously that no money had been misappropriated from the fund.
Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing and said the billions of ringgit found in his bank account was a “donation” from the Saudi royal family, and he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali.
Two years ago, leaked documents that purportedly originated from the Milan-based software company Hacking Team showed BSPP as among its clients for its controversial government spying and surveillance tools.
The agency is referred to as “Malaysia Intelligence” or MI, in most of the purportedly leaked correspondences, but at least one email referred to the BSPP and its director-general Abdul Hadi by name.
Another purportedly leaked internal email states: “[For your information], the reason for such rush is due to budget reasons and also because MI would like to use our solution during the elections that will take place anytime from now onwards.”
This email, dated Nov 6, 2012, explained that the haste to complete the transaction was because the BSPP needed to complete its 2012 budget by Dec 15 that year.
BSPP supposedly paid Hacking Team a total of €552,000 (RM2.32 million) between 2012 and 2015. However, the purportedly leaked documents showed that none of the transactions took place in 2013, which was when Najib allegedly paid the BSPP director-general.
BSPP has not issued any public statement on the Hacking Team leak since it took place on July 5, 2015. The Prime Minister’s Office, which was also implicated in the same leak, has denied purchasing spying tools from Hacking Team...