Speaking to reporters at the MACC headquarters here today, MACC chief Mohd Shukri Abdull said a prince had come forward claiming to be the donor, but that he was unable to show any supporting documentation.

“Something else we found strange was that when we went to Saudi Arabia in 2015, it was the prince that came to us,” he said.

“Usually, we are the ones that need to look for the witnesses.”

He said investigations to follow up on the prince’s claims however came to a standstill as MACC was unable to probe any further without consent from the attorney-general.

“If you want to probe further overseas, you need the attorney-general to sign a document, but we couldn’t get it (done).”

Mohd Shukri said the RM2.6 billion issue would now be handled largely by the 1MDB task force, but that this also included members of the MACC.

The RM2.6 billion deposit was the subject of controversial news reports in 2015 which detailed a chain of financial transactions linking 1MDB and other companies to a total of US$700 million being deposited in Najib’s accounts.

Najib said then that the money was a political donation from a Middle Eastern source. He also denied making personal use of the money or taking public funds.