Rafizi said there was “enough evidence” to back his claim that the woman, Zainab Mohd Salleh, was Abd Latiff Ahmad’s wife.

The evidence, he said, could be found in a recently declassified audit report by Boustead Heavy Industries Corp naming Zainab as Latiff’s wife as well as the pair’s connection to offshore companies linked to the project.

Yesterday, Rafizi claimed that Latiff’s “wife” was the owner of two companies that had siphoned funds from the LCS project.

He claimed that the companies were appointed as technical consultants and suppliers of spare parts, adding that they had sent invoices for work that was never done.

Rafizi alleged that the two companies bore names similar to a French company and were registered as offshore companies in Malta and Labuan, adding that as much as RM243 million was misappropriated.

He also said the schemes to misappropriate LCS funds using companies allegedly linked to Latiff, who was the then deputy defence minister, was no coincidence.

Latiff later denied that the woman was his wife. The special functions minister said he was prepared to cooperate with the authorities if they wished to probe the matter.

In a statement today, Rafizi said Latiff’s denial was an attempt to mislead the public.

He then included screenshots of Zainab’s personal details, including her identification number and address, to strengthen his claim.

On Aug 8, Rafizi claimed that he was in possession of leaked documents that gave the impression that a deal for the LCS was “pre-determined” even before the government signed its agreement with Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd.

The LCS project for the navy has come under scrutiny for its cost and delay in delivery after Putrajaya had spent RM6.08 billion but none of the six ships have been completed or delivered, according to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.