The prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor has been asked to clarify who the individual identified by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) as "Malaysian Official 1's (MO1) wife" is.
Yesterday the DOJ, in its latest civil forfeiture suit filing, alleged that at least US$27.3 million had been used to buy a 22-carat pink diamond pendant and necklace for “MO1's wife.”
Damansara Utama assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin in a statement today said Rosmah should clear the air on who this unnamed figure is.
“Since Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan has admitted that MO1 is Prime Minister Najib Razak (as reported in The Star on Sept 1, 2016), then it is not difficult to guess who is the "wife of MO".
“At yesterday’s event, Rosmah asked Malaysians not to believe in slander spread by social media.
“Instead of sweeping the DOJ’s allegations under the carpet, Rosmah must tell the Malaysian public if she is indeed the 'wife of MO1' mentioned in DOJ’s suit filing,” said Yeo.
Rosmah in a speech during an event at the Defence Ministry in Kuala Lumpur yesterday urged the public not to believe in “slander, which is twisted on social media”, without specifying.
Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali yesterday denied the latest allegations insisting no wrongdoing has been found against 1MDB and expressed concern at DOJ's "insinuations" of criminal wrongdoing by Najib.
Yeo also said that the amount of money used to buy jewellery for "MO1's wife" exceeded that of the Permata Programme's 2017 allocation.
Previously, she had also raised her concerns against Permata before, which resulted in a tit-for-tat argument with Rosmah's aide which lasted for several days.
Yeo also today urged "MO1's wife" to return the pink diamond necklace along with the assorted other jewellery, as it was purportedly bought with misappropriated 1MDB funds, which should belong to the people.
In its first 1MDB-related filing last year, the DOJ had claimed that a total of US$731 million of allegedly misappropriated 1MDB funds had entered the personal accounts of MO1.
This included US$681 million transferred in March 2013, which the DOJ documents quoted Apandi as saying that it was a personal donation from a member of the Saudi royal family.
The DOJ and Apandi both noted that in August 2013, US$620 million of the fund as returned.
However, the DOJ claimed the money had originated from 1MDB, and was transferred to MO1 from, and later returned to, the Singapore bank account of Tanore Corporation.
The DOJ has also shed more light on what had happened to the US$620 million, saying in its latest filing that at least US$27.3 million of the amount was used to buy a 22-carat pink diamond pendant and necklace for "MO1's wife".- Mkini
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