Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia launched a broadside against former party president Najib Abdul Razak, accusing him of lying about the multi-billion ringgit deposits in his personal bank account which he claimed was a "donation".

"Najib revelation that he did not know the real source of the funds has made Malaysians, particularly Umno members, feel cheated as he had all this while maintained that it was a donation from the Saudi Arabia government," the newspaper said in an editorial of its weekend edition, Mingguan Malaysia.

Najib, during an interview with Al Jazeera, said the initial deposits in his personal bank account did origin from Saudi Arabia, therefore, he assumed that subsequent deposits were also from legitimate sources.

Local and international investigators believe the money originated from state-owned 1MDB, of which he oversaw when he was the prime minister and finance minister.

Utusan noted that there had been many revelations that the money originated from Tanore Finance Corporation.

Investigators established the company was controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong, an associate of businessperson Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

"Finally, his (Najib's) lies all this while was exposed during his interview with Mary Ann Jolley in an interview with Al Jazeera recently.

"Najib must apologise to all Umno members for this lie which caused the people to lose confidence in the BN leadership, resulting its component parties losing power," the newspaper said under its pen name "Awang Selamat".

"Awang is reminded of an old saying that not all thieves are liars but all liars would always steal," the newspaper said in its conclusion.