Azalina: Unfair to compare BNM’s forex losses to 1MDB

Bank Negara forex dealings in the 1990s were actual losses, not paper losses, says Azalina.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Bank Negara Malaysia’s foreign exchange losses in the 1990s should not be compared with the 1MDB scandal, Umno supreme council member Azalina Othman said.

She said she had read many comments from the opposition about the RCI.

“I do not want to comment about the (US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions’) statement. If you ask me about RCI, that’s actually a loss and not paper loss.

“It’s not fair to compare it to 1MDB.

“Let the police conduct their investigations and let the investigations show what actually happened in our country through the huge financial losses in the forex scandal,” she said on the sidelines of the 2017 Umno general assembly at PWTC here today.

At the Global Forum on Asset Recovery, hosted by the US and UK in Washington, Sessions had hit out at the 1MDB issue, calling it “kleptocracy at its worst”.

He said although 1MDB was created to promote long-term economic development, alleged corrupt officials and their associates had apparently used the funds for a lavish spending spree.

“Today, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is working to provide justice to the victims of this alleged scheme,” he added.

In court filings in California on June 5, the DoJ had sought to seize US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) in assets, including artworks, jewellery, a luxury yacht and film rights, purchased with funds allegedly embezzled from 1MDB.

The assets named in the applications included the film rights to the two comedies Dumb and Dumber To, starring Jim Carrey, and Daddy’s Home, featuring Will Ferrell.

The action followed the DoJ’s earlier civil forfeiture suit in June last year seeking to recover all the assets, including the Park Lane Hotel in New York, a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, condominiums in New York, a private jet and expensive works of art, as well as finances related to Martin Scorsese’s movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who until last year was the chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing and has been cleared by Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali. -FMT