Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said MACC chief Dzulkifli Ahmad should also seek the support of Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali to collect evidence from the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the RM2.6 billion donation, purportedly from a Saudi prince.
“Are you prepared to take up this challenge and prove that your recent statement is not rhetoric,” the lawyer posted on his Facebook page.
Haniff was responding to Dzulkifli’s recent reference to politicians and community leaders who were “still drunk and drowning in graft” to stop this betrayal and abuse of power.
Dzulkifli’s controversial speech was made on the occasion of his 100th day in office but opposition MP Ramkarpal Singh dismissed it as “a lot of thunder but no rain”.
Recently, former attorney-general Abu Talib Othman said the MACC could resubmit investigation papers into the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC International cases following the emergence of new evidence outside Malaysia.
Abu Talib said the MACC was duty bound to investigate if there was a crime committed and it can resubmit investigation papers to the public prosecutor for his consideration.
He said this in response to the emergence of new evidence following investigations carried out by the authorities in the United States and Switzerland.
Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney-General said early this month that its probe, which started in August last year, had uncovered an alleged “Ponzi scheme” at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
It had said, “The sum of USD800 million (RM3.28 billion) appears to have been misappropriated from investments in natural resources made by the SRC sovereign fund.”
SRC International is now a unit of the finance ministry but was at that time a subsidiary of 1MDB.
In July, the DoJ filed lawsuits to seize assets, including property in Los Angeles and New York, that it said was purchased with some of the USD3.5 billion (RM14.35 billion) allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.
Early this year, Apandi cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak over the RM2.6 billion found in his bank accounts, and SRC International, following a probe by the MACC.
Apandi said Najib had returned RM2.03 billion (USD620 million) to the Saudi royal family in August that year as the money had not been utilised.
Apandi then instructed the MACC to close its investigation papers.