Shahrizats lash back at Rafizi: His respect for BAFIA and the law is zilch

KUALA LUMPUR - It was PKR Strategy Director Mohd Rafizi bin Ramli who was the main actor in the cast in the breach/violation of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act, 1989 (BAFIA), in complete disregard of the highly respected Malaysian banking and financial system which for decades served customers with the highest integrity in safeguarding banking privacy.

Rafizi Ramli’s disrespect for the law can also be seen when he distributed to the media earlier this week, a letter from Public Bank Berhad addressed to one Johari Mohamad dated 24 April 2012 that was marked ‘strictly private and confidential’. At the same time, Rafizi Ramli also distributed to the media, a letter from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) dated 7 May 2012 addressed to Johari Mohamad.

On 7 March, Rafizi Ramli had also distributed confidential bank documents that saw 21 violations of BAFIA. He had misled a bank employee to share for his use, confidential bank documents and concocted stories on loans for KL Eco City that never existed. What he had were credit ratings which Rafizi Ramli linked to loans for other investments, one of which date back as far as 2005, well before the incorporation of NFCorp, while the others were in 2008, well before the sales launch of KL Eco City in 2011.

Hunting down whistle blowers

All these breaches and disregards for confidentiality, NFCorp lawyers said, point to one fact only, ie, that Rafizi Ramli is there only to serve his personal political agenda.

NFCorp lawyers reiterated that Rafizi Ramli was wrong to say that NFCorp was hunting down ‘whistle blowers’. This is a matter between Public Bank Berhad, their employee/s and BNM, and NFCorp is not involved in the investigations by the authorities.

NFCorp’s police reports did not specify any bank employee. Neither was specific bank employees named in NFCorp’s letters to Bank Negara Malaysia or to Public Bank Berhad. Johari Mohamad had also confirmed that he had never met with NFCorp Chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail and similarly, Datuk Seri Dr Salleh said he had never met nor known of Johari Mohamad.

This puts down Rafizi Ramli’s claim that NFCorp’s chairman had been continuously harassing Public Bank Berhad and BNM to hunt down Johari Mohamad.

NFCorp lawyers stressed that Rafizi Ramli has a compulsion to perpetually offer distortions and misrepresentations, and should not be believed.

Can or cannot?

How could Rafizi Ramli claim that this bank employee is a “whistle blower” when what he did was to release private bank documents in relation to Rafizi Ramli’s false claim of the KL Eco City loan, which was not taken?

NFCorp lawyers said Rafizi Ramli as a professionally trained accountant and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants cannot declare his ignorance over the provisions of BAFIA and cannot use confidential bank information for his personal/political agenda.

The matter is now in the hands of BNM and NFCorp hopes that BNM will stand firm in protecting the integrity of Malaysia’s respected banking and financial system which has jealously protected this element of secrecy and confidentiality.

If Rafizi Ramli has misled the bank employee, he should take the blame, not anyone else. He must take full responsibility for his unlawful and illegal actions in contravening the provisions of BAFIA which are completely unambigious.

Section 97 of BAFIA provides, “No person who has any information or document which to his knowledge has been disclosed in contravention of subsection (1) shall in any manner howsoever disclose the same to any other person.”

NEWS RELEASE prepared and issued on behalf of National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) by public relations consulting firm - GRA Communications Sdn Bhd.