Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday dismissed as "political sabotage" a report that a probe into a state-owned investment fund had found hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred to his personal bank accounts. The investment vehicle, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), denied any wrongdoing after the Wall Street Journal said that nearly $700 million moved through government agencies, banks and companies linked to the fund before ending up in Najib's accounts.
The newspaper cited documents it said it had obtained, including bank transfer forms and flow charts prepared by government investigators as the basis for its report. Malaysia's ringgit currency tumbled to 3.7845 against the dollar, its lowest level since July 2005, on Friday after the report's publication. The newspaper said the original source of the money was unclear, and noted that the government investigation did not detail what happened to the funds that allegedly went into Najib's accounts.
Najib's office said in a statement that the claims were an effort to "undermine confidence in our economy, tarnish the government, and remove a democratically elected prime minister". "These latest claims, attributed to unnamed investigators as a basis to attack the prime minister, are a continuation of this political sabotage," it added. On the allegations themselves, the statement said only that "it must be noted that 1MDB has already stated that the company never provided funds to the prime minister". 1MDB said in a separate statement that it had not transferred any funds to Najib.
"To suggest otherwise, as some media outlets have done, is highly irresponsible and a deliberate attempt to undermine the company," it said. Both Najib and 1MDB said that previous leaked documents had "reportedly" been tampered with, and that the documents cited by the WSJ had not been verified. 1MDB was launched in 2009 by Najib, who still chairs its advisory board. Critics say it has been opaque in explaining its dealings.