Zeti refutes Najib, says she had no knowledge of RM2.6bil deposit

PETALING JAYA: Former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz has dismissed as "false" the claim by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that she and the central bank knew about the desposit of RM2.6bil into his account in 2013.

She also said that Najib and "a Cabinet Minister" had at the time requested she issue a statement to clear the name of the then Prime Minister in relation to the RM2.6bil deposited into his account before the 2013 general election.

Zeti said she refused to issue such a statement because she had no knowledge of the transactions that had occurred in Najib's accounts.

“I had no knowledge of the RM2.6bil remitted to his account,” she said in response to questions from The Star.

Zeti, who left Bank Negara in 2016 after serving for 15 years, also claimed that Najib had requested she issue a statement in July 2015 to clear him.

“In fact on July 3, 2015, I was called to the Prime Minister’s office. He made a request for me to issue a statement that he had done nothing wrong in his account.

"I informed him that I cannot issue such a statement because I did not have any knowledge of transactions that had occurred in his account,” she said.

Last week Najib, who was arrested earlier Tuesday in relation to investigations into SRC International Sdn Bhd, had said that Zeti and Bank Negara were aware of the RM2.6bil going into his account in March 2013.

The money allegedly came from the scandal-riddled 1Malaysia Development Fund (1MDB). SRC International used to be a subsidiary of 1MDB before it was taken over by the Ministry of Finance, at a time when Najib was also Finance Minister.