NAJIB’S OWN HANDS ‘UNCLEAN’? PM’S HANDPICKED MACC CHIEF SUDDENLY BACKS OFF FROM US$10BIL FOREX SCANDAL, TELLS BANK NEGARA TO CONDUCT ‘OWN PROBE’

KUALA LUMPUR – Bank Negara Malaysia has been advised to conduct its own internal investigation over the loss of US$10 billion in the foreign exchange (forex) market in the early 1990s.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said it would only step in when the internal investigations unearthed any element of corruption. “If they find any element of corruption, the report should be submitted to MACC and we will open an investigation,” MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Azam Baki told the New Straits Times.

In a report carried by NST yesterday, former BNM assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid revealed that the central bank had suffered US$10 billion in forex market losses in the early 1990s, far higher than it had admitted.

He was puzzled why no one was investigated or charged for what he described as the biggest forex losses in the world. Murad also shared “behind-the-scene” workings of the secretive BNM forex operations. He claimed that there was no proper documentation of the massive transactions, and that only a top central banker and a junior staff had a record of all the deals.

– NST