The Australian media has confirmed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s statement and the findings of Malaysian authorities that the money deposited into his personal bank accounts was a donation from a Saudi royalty, said Putrajaya.
“The investigations included forensic examination of every wire transfer,” said a government spokesperson in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office today.
“Malaysian authorities also travelled to Saudi Arabia to examine documentation and interview members of the royal family, and the officials who administered the donation.
“As the leaked letter from Saudi Arabia states, the donation was a gift to the prime minister for promoting moderate Islam, and his leadership in combatting terrorism and extremism – such as by launching his Global Movement of Moderates initiative.
“The letter makes clear the gift was to be used as the prime minister saw fit; would be transferred directly or through the donor’s companies; and no benefit was expected in return,” the spokesperson added.
Now that Putrajaya has announced that the details in the Four Corners Programme about the Saudi letter purporting to be Najib’s donor are correct, they can no longer pretend to be coy about the identity behind the name.
Or rather names – because, unfortunately and most confusingly, this ‘donor’ is characterised by no less than three separate names in the documentation. According to the letter he is supposedly a Prince Saud Abdulaziz al-Saud from the Private Office of Saud Abdulaziz Majid al-Saud, but the money was sent from an account in the name of Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Bandar Alsaud.
So, which of these three ‘Royal’ names is the correct version and to which individual in Saudi Arabia does it pertain? Because, of course, none of these names refer to any known billionaire Prince in the Saudi royal household.
Putrajaya had better come up with an answer, because the rest of the world has started falling around holding their sides in laughter at this childish ploy and ridiculous letter to boot…. when they are not scratching their heads over how AmBank could accept such tosh, that is.