PETALING JAYA: Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) president Ibrahim Ali today admitted that he received a personal cheque from then prime minister Najib Razak after the 13th general election (GE13) in 2013 but denied knowing the source of the funds.
“I was totally unaware that the source of the money was from SRC International Sdn Bhd or 1MDB because the names of these companies were not on the cheque.
“I can’t remember the date but I am certain it was after GE13 but before the 1MDB scandal was exposed,” he said in a press statement today.
According to Ibrahim, he was among those who had called for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the 1MDB scandal in 2014 along with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.
He was commenting on news reports yesterday naming him as one of the 22 individuals who were being sued by the government for allegedly receiving money from the accounts of SRC and 1MDB.
Ibrahim said he was an independent MP for Pasir Mas from 2008 to 2013 after winning it on a PAS ticket in GE12.
“As an independent MP, I was not given any government allocation to carry out programmes for the people in my constituency.
“As GE13 was approaching, I needed funds to help my constituents and I had to reach out for donations from various sources.
“There were times I had to use my credit card to its maximum limit,” he said, adding that he had run out of funds during his five years as a Barisan Nasional-friendly independent MP, including expenses for his campaign in GE13 which he lost.
After GE13, Ibrahim said he met Najib to seek funds, adding that the former prime minister agreed to his request in appreciation of his support for Barisan Nasional (BN).
“I assumed that the funds must have come from Umno or BN, or his personal funds.”
Ibrahim claimed the money he got from Najib was the amount he had spent on his constituents.
“I am prepared to be summoned and I will answer in court. Let the court decide if I need to return the whole sum which I had spent without knowing the source,” he said.-FMT