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By R. Loheswar
Sunday, 08 Jan 2023 7:51 PM MYT
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong wants former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Abdul Khalid Murad to withdraw the statutory declaration (SD) he made back in 1999 where he accused the former of hiding billions of ringgit in ‘master accounts’ belonging to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The owner of financial publication The Edge denied claims that he had facilitated some of these ‘master accounts’, while the existence of these accounts was never proven till today.
As such, he called for Murad to publicly withdraw the SD in order to clear his name.
“What I seek is simple. For Murad to publicly withdraw his SD now. Apologies are not necessary.
“This is the only way this episode will finally end,” he said in an article published by the financial daily today.
Tong said he, his family and his friends suffered as they were constantly harassed by the Anti Corruption Commission (now Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) and Bank Negara authorities incessantly to the point many decided to migrate to Australia.
In the article, Tong explained that in Murad’s SD the latter accused Anwar Ibrahim of having 20 “master accounts” where some RM3 billion were hidden.
The funds were allegedly derived from gains made in various corporate exercises used to further Anwar’s political ambition.
Tong said it was here that Murad implicated him as one of these facilitators who established and managed one of the “master accounts”.
He recalled how their passports were seized, bank accounts frozen and phones were tapped by the authorities. He said he and his late wife were forced to sell PhileoAlliedBank and were robbed of their shareholdings in the bank’s parent company that was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange after the bank was sold for cash.
Subsequently, he, his late wife and young children migrated to Canada.
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