KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said it had investigated Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim previously over the country’s forex scandal during the 1990s, but found no case against him.
The MACC said this today in defence against claims by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the agency had failed to act on a statutory declaration by a former Bank Negara assistant governor that implicated Anwar, who was finance minister during the forex crisis.
The SD was made by former assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid on October 26, 1999.
MACC said its records show that six investigation papers to investigate Anwar in relation to Murad’s SD had been opened.
The papers were submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) on August 12, 2022, and they decided that no charges be brought up against any party.
“Investigations were conducted thoroughly, comprehensively and with great detail with the help of Bank Negara within the country and abroad in United Kingdom and Singapore.
“The results of the investigation show that there was no case against Anwar,” MACC said in a statement today.
The anti-graft agency said it took seriously the allegations made by Dr Mahathir in a press conference two days ago when he claimed MACC did not investigate the contents of Murad’s SD.
“MACC stresses that his allegation is completely untrue, and in fact, the matter transpired during Dr Mahathir’s leadership as prime minister.”
Malaysia’s foreign exchange scandal occurred during Dr Mahathir’s first tenure as prime minister, when the central bank traded in foreign currencies aggressively, reportedly to stabilise the ringgit, according to business news reports at the time.
Bank Negara did this actively for a period when the ringgit was between RM2.3 to RM2.5 to the US dollar.
Some reports state that trading began from 1987 and lasted into the early 1990s.
Dr Mahathir’s ally, Tun Daim Zainuddin, was finance minister when Bank Negara began its forex trading activities, having assumed the post from 1984. Anwar took over as finance minister in 1991, which lasted until 1998.
Bank Negara’s aggressive trading resulted in forex losses when the British pound fell; losses which Murad claimed to be at least US$10 billion (then RM25 billion) when he testified in a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the matter.
The RCI, held in 2017, concluded that the central bank had lost even more – around RM31.5 billion between 1991 and 1994 – due to “excessive” and “speculative” trading, but that the losses were hidden from Bank Negara’s reports.
A subsequent police report was classified as “no further action” because of a lack of documentary evidence.
Murad, who testified in the RCI, said he had explained the forex losses to Anwar while on a flight to Hawaii in early 1994, and the latter’s response was that he (Anwar) would have to resign if the public knew of it.
Anwar in a 2017 statement denied Murad’s version of events, rejecting the insinuation that he ordered a cover-up of the losses.
In a New Straits Times report on Anwar’s statement then, the then jailed opposition leader said Murad had been hostile towards him, and that his 1999 SD contained “false and scurrilous accusations”.
Anwar also said Murad’s SD had been investigated by the anti-graft authority and found to be baseless.
Anwar, who also testified to the RCI, blamed former Bank Negara advisor Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop for not divulging complete information on the central bank’s losses from foreign exchange trading.
Nor Mohamed had overseen foreign currency portfolios at the central bank from 1986 to 1993. He later held high-powered positions, including as second finance minister, special economic adviser to the prime minister and director of Khazanah Nasional. – January 24, 2024