Malaysia's CID chief linked to money-laundering

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 2 Mar 2018 2:13PM · 10 Comments

Australian Federal Police says a week after Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd (third left) concluded a trip to Australia in 2016, his account received ‘a flurry of suspicious cash deposits’. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, March 2, 2018.

BUKIT Aman’s criminal investigation department chief Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd has had A$320,000 (RM971,728) seized by Australian Federal Police from his Sydney bank account on suspicion of money laundering, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Wan Ahmad, however, is not fighting to have the money returned. The report said Bukit Aman had already cleared him after an internal inquiry last year which followed an alert from Australian police.

Wan Ahmad, who was promoted to CID chief in April last year, had purportedly said his bank account there which was opened in 2011, was for money to pay for his daughter’s master’s degree.

But the report said a week after he concluded a trip to Australia in 2016, the account received “a flurry of suspicious cash deposits.”

“The account balance grew by nearly US$290,000 in a month, mostly in structured deposits below US$10,000, the threshold above which law enforcement agencies receive mandatory notifications,” SMH reported.

SMH quoted Allaudeen Abdul Majid of the integrity unit saying Malaysian police had fully investigated the matter and found that  the funds were lawfully obtained from the sale of a house and that Wan Ahmad had wanted to send money to his daughter.

Allaudeen had also said that Wan Ahmad had asked a close friend, an Indian national named Seenisirajudeen Mohamad Basith, to handle the transfer of funds for him and the money was transferred without compliance to Australian laws.

“The whole episode was an oversight. No malice was intended to break any laws including Australia’s,” he was quoted as telling Australian investigators.

Bukit Aman’s investigation report was sent last March and Australian authorities won the forfeiture order on Wan Ahmad’s account a week later.

The applications to the New South Wales Supreme Court to seize Wan Ahmad’s funds from the account was based on the deposits it received and is not exploring whether he was involved in chargeable offences, the paper said.

The account was opened in Wan Ahmad’s name at the Commonwealth Bank’s Haymarket branch in Sydney during a trip in 2011. At the time, he was head of police in Johor.

The Malaysian Insight has contacted Wan Ahmad and Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun and is awaiting their response.

Wan Ahmad has denied any wrongdoing to SMH and said he is not fighting to have the money returned because of high legal costs.

Prior to opening his Sydney account in 2011, records showed he had visited Australia on a tourist visa nine times since 2001, staying for less than a week and sometimes carrying large sums of cash.

In December the following year after the account was opened, a deposit of AU$30,000 was received while AU$8,000 was withdrawn.

Australian police was reported saying this was money for his son’s studies at the time, after which the account lay dormant until 2016.

It became active after Wan Ahmad’s visit to Australia in September that year. There were numerous cash deposits from five different states of which 54 “fell below the reporting threshold” and triggered alerts to his bank and financial crime tracker AUSTRAC.

By the time Wan Ahmad was appointed CID chief, he had been cleared by Bukit Aman’s investigation.

SMH said that six months after the funds were seized, Australian police liaison officers in Kuala Lumpur were photographed posing with him. – March 2, 2018.

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Comments

  • Oversight my FOOT. If Malaysia need to cover up this - I hope the Australian Government will not let this criminal activity go free. Do not be another former Menteri Besar case that do not understand English

    Posted 6 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • Never Ending Stories of Malaysia scandals. All are leadership by examples!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Posted 6 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Rm971728. 00 give me 10% , I will take the 1st flight to Down under to fight for you.

    Posted 6 years ago by Zureen ariff · Reply

  • Where's MACC? Why have you not acted on this yet to clear Wan Ahmad's name? How much is his salary per month? How can he afford such a big sum of money? Where is his source of money? Did he declare his asset to MACC? MACC, why are you so slow to act? If anything on Opposition, you are so quick.

    Posted 6 years ago by Peace Maker · Reply

  • Numerous deposits? Why would anyone wants to send money in this manner?

    Posted 6 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Nobody respect us anymore..... Day by day we portrayed how holy we are n day by day we demonstrate how dirty we're becoming..... A real bloody oxymoron..... I can think of any country as thick skins as us......

    Posted 6 years ago by John Phoon · Reply

  • Personally have known him since young when I was a kid. He's a genuine man. Always abiding by the law and wanting justice to be served in Malaysia and authorities involved in corruption to be brought to daylight and to be terminated. I trust him.

    Posted 6 years ago by Justice Be Served · Reply

    • Sorry, but honest man will contest RM1 million - he's not contesting. Therefore in my personal opinion, I trust him to steal even more than RM1 million if he is not contesting - that is the SOP (standard operating procedure) of crooks - when they get away with RM1 million, the next heist will be bigger. They only stop when they are caught.

      Posted 6 years ago by Seng Hong Teoh · Reply

  • IGP say sold his house in malaysia....if so why payment made in Australia.. come on WHY INTERNAL INVESTIGATION BY JUST EXPLAINING TO IGP.......DID IGP DID ANY FORENSIC INVESTIGATION? DID IGP SEEK AUSTRALIAN VERSION OF THE CASE? WHY NOT ? COME ON COME CLEAN ON THE ISSUE ESPECIALLY WHEN ACCUSE REFUSE TO CLAIM. LOGIC TALKS .

    Posted 6 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply

  • Admittedly our New Economic Policy has created a new breed of UMNOPutras who can write off A$320,000 instead of asking for it back. Why deposit as cash in tranches of $10,000 over 30 times? How much does a CID chief earn anyway? Was this money really from the proceeds of the sale of his house? Did Bukit Aman do a professional job when they declared there was an oversight? Who concluded there was no malice involved? Does Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd pay taxes?

    Posted 5 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply