The BN strategic communications team (BNSC) has dredged up an old leaked recording of Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin allegedly saying he did not question funds managed by Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.
In the audio recording, supposedly recorded on Sept 5, 2015, a voice that sounds like Muhyiddin - who was still Umno deputy president at the time - is heard saying that he had never questioned "special funds" managed by the Umno president.
"I have never asked, as a deputy president from 2009 until now, I have never questioned this special fund, because I know that from before, this fund is managed by the president," the voice says.
The “special funds” is believed to be a reference to Umno's war chest. Najib had in 2013 received a US$681 million sum in his personal accounts to fund Umno and BN's general election efforts that year.
Najib claimed that the US$681 million, which came to be known as the RM2.6 billion donation, had come from a member of the Saudi royal family.
In response to an open letter from former international trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz today regarding the funds received by Najib, BNSC said she should ask Muhyiddin about what he meant in the recording.
"Please ask Muhyiddin...why he had said he had no problems about the special Umno president fund that Muhyiddin (said) was a long-standing Umno practice.
"I am sure that Muhyiddin will confirm to Rafidah what she already knows - that it was always the practise that the Umno president holds the funds on behalf of the party," BNSC said in a statement today.
The team added that Muhyiddin had kept quiet about the recording for over two years.
Malaysiakini has contacted Muhyiddin for a response.
The audio recording’s supposed date, Sept 5, 2015, is the day when Umno held a supreme council meeting, following which Najib said that Muhyiddin remained loyal to the party despite having been sacked as deputy prime minister.
The leaked recording, which had been making the rounds since 2016, appears to lend credence to the Sept 5, 2015 date, as the voice attributed to Muhyiddin refers to Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as "deputy prime minister and home minister".
Muhyiddin had been axed as deputy prime minister in July 2015 for being critical of Najib's handling of the 1MDB scandal.
As early as August that year, he had begun openly questioning Najib's donation, saying the latter would not reveal who exactly had given him the funds.
While Najib had been cleared by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali of any wrongdoing with regards to the donations, the US Department of Justice (DOJ), however, paints a different picture.
According to its civil forfeiture suits, US$681 million was allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB, and transfered to the accounts of a figure named in court documents as “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1).
Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who heads BNSC, has said that MO1 is Najib.
The DOJ also claimed that the US$620 million supposedly returned by MO1 ended up in accounts controlled by 1MDB-linked businessperson Jho Low. - Mkini
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