Nazir denies CIMB staff disbursed US$7m

CIMB chairperson Nazir Razak has denied using his bank's staff to disburse the US$7 million he received from his brother, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, before the last general election.

He told the Edge Financial Daily last week that he had instructed his relationship manager, who operates his accounts, to disburse the funds.

"I was asked to essentially open an account and convert a cheque to cash, and then make the cash available to people identified by my brother.

"My banking account is at CIMB... There was nothing unusual to it. Everything was done in a transparent manner," he said.

"I just want to clarify that there's no such thing as mobilising [the bank's] branch infrastructure. There's no issue with regard to the bank, per se. And the bank does its compliance and all that... there was no exception applied," he added.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, had claimed that the funds were distributed by the bank's staff.

In the WSJ report, Nazir had admitted receiving the sum from his brother.

However, Nazir told WSJ he believed the money was from donations he helped raise from Malaysian corporations and individuals for the election, and is not sure of any other source of the funds.

"I had no knowledge whatsoever that these funds may have originated from any other source(s).

"The entire amount was paid out in cash to various recipients according to the instructions of the party (Umno) president (Najib) and the account was closed with a zero balance," he said.

Taking to Instagram later, Nazir expressed regret over the matter.

"I understand the furore, and with hindsight, I wish I didn't," he said.

The CIMB chairperson also explained that leading up to the last general election, his brother had asked him to "urgently help pass on cash to party machinery".

"I assumed and believed, in good faith, that the funds came from legitimate political fund-raising," he wrote. -Mkini