Lee Siew Kuan, who was hired by the central bank to probe into scandals involving about 20 deposit-taking cooperatives at the time, said Jaffar had requested him to look into BNM’s books.

He said he checked with the BNM accounts department and was told by the accountant that there were big losses due to the forex trading.

“I informed the governor but he did not believe me and said the losses could not be that much,” he told the tribunal chaired by Mohd Sidek Hassan, who is also a former chief secretary to the government.

Lee said Jaffar asked him to take a second look at the accounts, which he did.

“After taking a second look at the accounts, I met and informed Lin See Yan (then BNM deputy governor) about the high losses amounting to between RM8 to RM9 billion,” he said.

Lee, 85, said he and Lin then went to brief Jaffar, who according to Lee, did not say anything but looked worried and shocked.

“I am unable to say who was responsible for the losses suffered in the years from 1990 to 1993 because I do not have the facts,” he said.

Lee, who is the oldest witness before the RCI so far, said as a contract officer he was responsible to Jaffar or Lin.

He joined BNM in 1987 and left in early 1993.

Lee, who had difficulty understanding questions from the tribunal members due to a hearing impairment, said he did not know which department in BNM was responsible for forex operations for the years between 1988 to 1993.

He said he came across the losses when Jaffar asked him to look into BNM’s accounts to determine if “the total amount of forex exchange exceeded the gold and foreign exchange reserves of BNM” in the year 1990 to 1993.

Ex-BNM deputy governor: I was shocked at scale of forex losses