Former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak claimed Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan's remarks that the party was unhappy with Perikatan Nasional for continuing "cruel" court cases had been spun to slander the latter.
Taking to Facebook, Najib said that his court cases, and that of other Umno leaders, were not what Ahmad was referring to.
Instead, he claimed Ahmad was "specifically" referring to forfeiture suits and compounds initiated by the MACC. The MACC suits were initiated against those who allegedly received 1MDB funds through Najib.
"(Ahmad) did not refer to my cases or the of any Umno leaders, but specifically referred to the 121 forfeiture and compound cases," Najib said on Facebook.
During a live talk show published on Media Umno Malaysia's Facebook page on Monday, Ahmad claimed that one of Umno's key complaints with the PN Plus government is that court cases initiated by the previous government had not been dropped.
He said one "example" was the forfeiture and compound suits, of which he is one of the defendants.
"One more dissatisfaction is not so much about positions but that the government now is continuing the cruelty of the past government.
"These cases brought to court were due to the cruelty during the time of (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Thomas, and (former MACC chief) Latheefa Koya.
"Mahathir is no longer in government, and I don't know where Thomas and Latheefa have gone but why have these cases continued?
"As an example, a group of 41 organisations and individuals, and another group 80 organisations and individuals, they didn't know where the money the (Umno) president (Najib) gave came from, they assumed it was normal political funds.
"But why were the 41 subjected to forfeitures and the 80, including me, were compounded multiple times (the amount received)," Ahmad said.
The compounds were issued under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (Amla).
Ahmad claimed that one person who received RM50,000 was issued an RM2.5 million compound. This is likely false.
Section 92(1) of AMLA states that compounds can only be a maximum of 2.5 times the amount received.
This means receiving RM50,000 of illicit funds can only be punished with a compound of up to RM125,000.
However, one Umno leader - Shahrir Samad, who received RM1 million of 1MDB-linked funds - was issued an RM2.5 million compound.
Meanwhile, Najib also claimed there was unfairness as the MACC did not pursue action against two former Umno leaders who jumped to Bersatu - Mas Ermieyati Samsudin and Mustapa Mohamed - who also received funds from him.
The MACC, in Oct 2019, claimed the list of people it was taking action against was not final when denying bias over not going after Mas Ermieyati.
The MACC has not pursued action against the Masjid Tanah MP to date. - Mkini
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