INTERVIEW | Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he did not know former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz's husband and son had allegedly received monies from 1MDB when he appointed Zeti to the Council of Eminent Persons in 2018.
The council, also known as the Council of Elders, had the role to advise the then Pakatan Harapan government on economic matters.
According to the former prime minister, he chose Zeti to be a member of the council based on her experience and performance as a central banker.
"I didn't know, I didn't know. But Zeti performed very well as a banker. As a central banker, she is well-known worldwide. I appointed a very well-known person.
"I did not know anything about her sons and all that. That is her matter.
"But as a central banker, she is the best central banker that we have had for a long time," he told Malaysiakini in an interview on Wednesday.
Malaysiakini asked Mahathir if he had knowledge about 1MDB monies allegedly being channelled into an account controlled by Zeti's husband, Tawfiq Ayman, when he appointed Zeti into the council.
Mahathir said he had been in communication with Zeti since the time Najib Abdul Razak was prime minister.
Zeti had known about irregularities in Najib's bank accounts, Mahathir said, adding that she wanted to take action against the then prime minister but the plan failed.
"Actually, even during Najib's time (as prime minister) I had been talking to Zeti. She was the one who told me that Najib had a lot of money in the bank and that she wanted to take action. She tried.
"But after that, not sure what Najib did, she did not dare. Even the group of four, after the police chief told Najib about their group of four, the attorney-general was sacked.
"Najib destroyed the group of four," Mahathir said.
He was referring to the group of four top government officials - the then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, former MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamad, then Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, and Zeti, who were said to have planned action against Najib over the 1MDB scandal.
However, three of them - Gani, Abu Kassim, and Zeti - were allegedly betrayed when the group's plan was leaked to Najib, leading to them being replaced in 2016.
It is uncertain when Mahathir communicated with Zeti about Najib's bank account nor which transaction was being referred to.
At the time, Zeti had denied Najib's claim that she was aware, as Bank Negara governor, of the so-called RM2.6 billion donation from Saudi Arabia to his personal bank account in 2013.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court, in sentencing Najib for laundering money through SRC International, had ruled that there was no such donation.
Zeti's husband Tawfiq had come on the authorities' radar recently, following an allegation that 1MDB funds were transferred to a Singapore-based firm controlled by him and his son between 2008 and 2009.
The Edge reported that a sum of US$16.22 million (RM67 million) had been purportedly channelled into the Singaporean firm Iron Rhapsody Ltd.
It stated that Singapore police had informed Bank Negara in 2015 and 2016 of the suspicious transactions.
Zeti was still the Bank Negara governor at the time.
The US$16.22 million reportedly originated from companies and bank accounts of fugitive financier Jho Low, who is regarded as the mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal.
Following this, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) asked if Zeti, who is now Permodalan Nasional Bhd chairperson, was aware of the alleged transactions.
C4 also questioned if former prime minister Mahathir knew about the matter when he appointed her to the Council of Eminent Persons.
Last month, CCID director Zainuddin Yaacob said the case was being investigated under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti Money Laundering, Anti Terrorism Financing, and Proceeds for Unlawful Activity Act 2001.
Tawfiq and one of his sons were called to the CCID headquarters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to facilitate investigations into the allegation. - Mkini
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