Rafizi refutes allegations of receiving cash from penny stock crash mastermind John Soh

PUTRAJAYA: PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli (pic) has denied claims he received any money from Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen, the alleged mastermind of the 2013 penny stock crash in Singapore.

Rafizi signed a statutory declaration on the matter, which he handed to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) here on Friday at the MACC headquarters.

"I hereby deny I have ever received a single sen in whatever form from whatever individual, whether Jon or Soh or John Soh or Soh Chee Wen," Rafizi told reporters.

The Pandan MP said his SD was in response to claims made by blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and former Rembau PKR chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard, that he and other members of PKR leadership had received funds from Soh amounting to almost RM26mil in total.

Rafizi said he has made statutory declarations before for all his income, assets and liabilities covering a period from 2010 onwards.

He also said he had signed the SD in response to PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan, who had challenged him to do so for claiming that former PAS deputy president Datuk Dr Nasharudin Mat Isa received money from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

In a statement Thursday, PAS refuted that it had any link to the alleged money Nasharudin received.

Three years after the collapse of three penny stocks on the Singapore Exchange, Soh was charged in November last year, in what prosecutors described as "the largest market manipulation" case in the island republic.

Soh was slapped with 181 charges, and along with two others, were identified as the "masterminds" in the biggest financial fraud case.

Seven new witness-tampering charges were brought against Soh in February this year. This brings the total number of charges Soh now faces to 188.