Najib queried as task force seeks to recover funds

Bloomberg

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission questioned former Prime Minister Najib Razak over 1MDB, as a special task force hones in on recovering assets from the troubled state fund.
The commission is compiling evidence and reaching out to two important witnesses to build a case on
SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, Mohd Shukri Abdull, chief commissioner at the anti-graft agency known as MACC, said. He declined to name the witnesses.
Mohd Shukri expects charges to be filed “very soon.”
Najib spent about four hours giving his statement and verifying documents related to SRC on Tuesday, with his session set to resume on Thursday, the former premier said to reporters before leaving the agency.
Malaysia’s new administration came to power earlier this month in a shock victory and quickly reopened investigations into the fund, whose full name is 1Malaysia Development Bhd. That includes figuring out if any of its money ended up with Najib, who once chaired its advisory board, and reaching out to global investigators who had probed alleged embezzlement and money laundering activities in recent years. Najib has denied wrongdoing.
On Monday, the government announced that a new task force consisting some people involved in a previous probe into 1MDB will lead the renewed investigation. Former Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail and former anti-graft agency chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed are leading the team along with the police’s former special branch deputy director Abdul Hamid Bador and MACC’s Mohd Shukri.
Mohd Shukri, who was deputy commissioner during the previous probe into 1MDB, said he was threatened
with dismissals and arrests, and had a bullet sent to his home. He later retired in 2016.
“My experiences in the SRC International and 1MDB case have been extremely frightening,” Mohd Shukri said at the press briefing. “I almost died because of this case. I was afraid to come back to this country.” “I have come back to finish what I haven’t finished,” he said. This task force will focus on bringing back funds and assets, as well as taking criminal action on those involved in wrongdoing in 1MDB under various laws including the penal code.