Special team to investigate forex losses: IGP

KUALA LUMPUR: A special police team will be investigating forex losses of RM31.5 billion suffered by Bank Negara Malaysia in the early 1990s under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust (CBT).
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun who said this today, however declined to elaborate on the personalities that will be investigated.
"We have started investigations under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust," he said, adding that the team is headed by Bukit Aman's Commercial Crimes Department director Commissioner Datuk Amar Singh.
"We need more time to review and investigate the matter following the release of the report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into losses suffered by the central bank," he told, after officiating the finals of the police silat and tennis competitions at the Police Training Centre, here today.
"We have to be precise and accurate in our probe and cannot be hasty in calling up prominent personalities for their statements to be taken," he said.
RCI secretary Datuk Dr Yusof Ismail, who is director of the Finance Ministry's Strategic Investment Division, had lodged a report at Putrajaya police headquarters last Thursday (Nov 30) to get the police to initiate an official investigation into the matter.
In his police report, Yusof stated that those alleged involved in the wrongdoings were Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) officers, BNM Board of Members, the National Audit Department, Finance Ministry officials and the prime minister who served during that period.
The RCI, in its 524-page report that was tabled in Parliament the same day (Nov 30) Thursday, had recommended that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then finance minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former Bank Negara advisor Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, be probed over their involvement in the scandal.
The RCI which labeled Nor Mohamed as "principally liable for criminal breach of trust" also alleged that ex-Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin had aided and abetted Nor Mohamed by leaving BNM "to its own devices".
It believed that Anwar as Finance Minister at the time, had misled the government and concealed the actual losses suffered by BNM, which the RCI revealed was RM31.5 billion over three years, far larger than that the RM5.7 billion initially reported by the central bank.
The RCI also said it believed that Dr Mahathir as prime minister at the time, had approved Anwar's "misleading statements".