WEE Ka Siong today revealed that he had told the chief of an MCA-linked cooperative to seek legal advice over RM15 million it received from Yayasan 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

The MCA president said during a discussion with Koperasi Jayadiri Malaysia Bhd (Kojadi) chairman Ng Peng Hay, he had told him not to be too hasty on the matter.

“I never issued an order to return or not to return the money. I told him (Ng) that we should wait and discuss this matter with lawyers,” Wee said today at MCA’s headquarters.

Wee said Ng’s claims that he had tried to interfere in the matter was nothing more than an attempt to mislead Kojadi’s board of directors.

“He claimed that there is a letter from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on this matter but the only letter we received was in January.

“He also told me that he was in contact with a close source from the MACC but did not disclose who that person was,” Wee said.

Wee said that he had communicated this with Ng via WhatsApp as he had been in Indonesia for a conference, and that all the proof he needed was in his smartphone.

Ng had recently accused Wee of preventing Kojadi from meeting anti-graft authorities to declare it had received RM15 million from 1MDB’s charitable arm in 2012.

Ng had said the board had agreed for him to meet with MACC in light of the graft busters’ recent filing of civil forfeiture suits to recover 1MDB funds.

He had said the Kojadi board had held an emergency meeting on Thursday in which he had been directed to meet the MACC “to clarify our position and seek its direction and guidance”. 

“However, before I could secure an appointment with the MACC, the MCA president issued instructions to all Kojadi directors via social media to stop this meeting and to meet with party leaders (first).

“I object to this interference by the MCA president in the day-to-day running of Kojadi,” Ng said in a subsequent statement.

Kojadi was formed by MCA in 1981 to provide student loans for higher education.

The RM15 million financial grant from Yayasan 1MDB was meant for Kojadi’s Micro Credit Scheme for Youths.

The money had been disbursed to 1,264 small businesses and cooperatives, and had also been used to pay taxes. – June 30, 2019.