Umno Supreme Council not told of donations to PM Najib’s account, says Shahrir

© Provided by The Malaysian Insider Tan Sri Shahrir Samad says the Umno Supreme Council were not told of contributions or political donations to the president or treasurer. – The Malaysian insider filepic, August 6, 2015.Umno Supreme Council has never asked, nor were its members briefed on any political donations to the trustee accounts of its president or treasurer, said Supreme Council member Tan Sri Shahrir Samad, wading into the debate over the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts.

The Barisan Nasional Backbencher (BNBBC) chairman was quoted by Umno blog MyKMU.net as saying that the Supreme Council and the state Umno liaison committee were never told of any contributions or political donations to the president or treasurer.

"The question related to donations were never raised or exposed to Supreme Council members or state committee as along as I've been in the council and the Johor Umno liaison committee," said the politician who has been a member of the council since the time of former party president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Besides the current assets and income, the party also trusts the president, the state liaison chairman and treasurer to find other financial sources to fund its political activities and elections," he was quoted as saying.

On Monday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced that the US$700 million, which was channelled into Najib's personal bank accounts, came from donors and not from state strategic investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The anti-graft agency also confirmed that the donor is from the Middle East but did not name the source. Last night, MACC said it would ask Najib to provide an explanation over the donation.

Allegations of money in Najib's accounts first surfaced in a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on July 2, citing documents from Malaysian investigators.

The WSJ said the source of the funds was unknown, but came through 1MDB-linked entities in various tranches, the largest of which – US$681 million – was channelled to Najib's accounts in March 2013, ahead of the general election in May that year.

The prime minister denied taking 1MDB funds for personal use, but did not directly address the fund transfers.

A few of Najib's Cabinet members had previously said that there was nothing wrong in money being funnelled into his personal accounts as he had the capacity to be a trustee for Umno, of which he was president.