SD On Fund Transfers To PM's Account Fictitious - CAGM

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- The statutory declaration (SD) purportedly by a former AmBank staff related to fund transfers to Prime Minister Najib Razak's account with the bank as published in certain news portals is fictitious, the non-governmental organisation that released it has claimed. Citizens for Accountable Governance Malaysia (CAGM) admitted this in its latest posting on its blog. The group pointed out that the whole move was a part of a social media experiment and claimed that they have proven how the media thrives on reporting sensational news. The group which has been issuing press statements since May 28, claimed that the group did not have over 2,000 members as they had claimed earlier nor did a person by the name of Md Zainal Abidin, said to be a lawyer and the chairman of the group, exist. "And no, we don't have a SD that implicates the PM in any financial misdeeds. CAGM just did an experiment on social media in Malaysia," the NGO stated in the blog posting. It also posted what was purportedly a conversation between The Wall Street Journal's Asia markets editor Tom Wright and Md Zainal with regard to the SD. Several news portals had earlier Wednesday reported on CAGM’s posting on the SD which was claimed to have been signed by the former AmBank staff who was purportedly fired from his job for raising questions over alleged transfer of millions to Najib’s account. The claim was follow up to the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) report on July 2 that documents from unnamed investigators showed a money trail from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to Najib’s account. Checks by Bernama found that CAGM had no official website and was only registered for a blogspot page on which they had posted articles since May this year. The group was also not listed in the Registrar of Societies website which is updated weekly. -- BERNAMA