PUTRAJAYA • Malaysia is set to recover another RM270 million (S$88 million) of funds misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), after graftbusters filed applications for the forfeiture of properties derived from the personal bank accounts of disgraced former premier Najib Razak.
Newly minted Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Latheefa Koya yesterday said civil forfeiture applications were filed against 41 people and entities, including branches of former ruling party Umno, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday.
"The respondents were identified via transactions from Najib's personal bank account... If they voluntarily decide to give back the money, all is well and good, that's what we're focusing on," Ms Latheefa told a press conference.
She added that out of the RM270 million, Umno was the biggest recipient, receiving RM212 million in separate transactions.
Umno's acting president Mohamad Hasan said the party will contest the application, stressing that MACC has no right to seize the money transferred to its divisions.
"The money that MACC has frozen now in our accounts are not the funds which the national Umno received from 1MDB. That money (from 1MDB) has long been utilised.
"What MACC froze are actually clean party funds which we received from well-wishers and donors during the last general election... this is clean money," The Star Online quoted him as saying.
Last year, Malaysia's ex-deputy police chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim said more than 50 people received money traceable to the billions of ringgit in 1MDB-linked funds that went into Najib's bank account.
