Rosmah denies receiving 1MDB funds, demands action

KUALA LUMPUR - The wife of the Prime Minister yesterday denied that she had misapproriated funds from state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) as alleged in an online report .

Lawyers for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor confirmed that the account in Affin Bank, mentioned in the online Sarawak Report website, did belong to her, Malaysiakini news website said.

She is demanding action from the central bank for breach of privacy.

Her response followed a claim in the Sarawak Report on Thursday that her aide deposited RM2 million into her personal account between February and April this year, and linking it to the 1MDB scandal.

"My client.. (has) not committed any criminal offence or any misappropriation of funds and strongly denies any links to the funds being from 1MDB.

"The report is deemed to be indecent, menacing, false, and is intended to annoy or harass my client," said the law firm Messrs Noorhajran Mohd Noor in a statement, as reported by Malaysiakini.

The lawyers confirmed that the account in Affin Bank, Malaysia's ninth largest lender by assets, is hers. The account was opened in 1984 when she was working for a property company.

"My client appeals for responsible reporting of facts, to have ethical and moral obligations of fairness and accuracy," her lawyers said.

The law firm said the leak of the account's information is in violation of the Financial Services Act 2013 and asked Bank Negara Malaysia to "conduct a probe and issue its findings into the offensive unauthorised disclosure on the part of the said Bank."

"Protection on information and secrect and restrictions on inquiring specifically into the affairs of particular customer are also provided for under the same Act," said Messrs Noorhajran Mohd Noor.

Meanwhile, a multi-agency government taskforce carrying out a probe into the affairs of 1MDB said yesterday that it has already began investigating a bank account of the Prime Minister's wife as part of its probe. "The task force already knew about the account belonging to the Prime Minister's wife even before it was exposed in the media," it said in a media statement.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.