MACC civil forfeiture suit: We are not in position to question source of funds, says clothing company

KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): One of the 41 companies/entities/individuals caught up in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) civil forfeiture suit has stated that it had “no prior knowledge whatsoever with regards to the money issues as mentioned in the statement by MACC.”

“Jakel would like to clearly state that all transactions related to the allegations were done on arm’s length genuine business transactions, supported by proper documents,” Jakel Trading & Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd said in a statement today.

“Jakel has never been involved in any money laundering scheme and would remain to be so in the future”.

It has been alleged that ex-PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor spent RM55 million to buy luxury clothing and expensive clothes from Jakel Trading & Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd.

“Let it be clear that the transactions referred to were orders that we received from the former Prime Minister and also from the previous Prime Minister’s office (“PMO”) for Jakel to supply jubah fabrics that the former prime minister and PMO had organised for all their charity programmes (for imams, tahfiz etc. and to more than 7,000 mosques around the country, and supply of clothing for flood victims between 2011 and 2014 inclusive), well before any issues pertaining to 1MDB came to our knowledge,” the company said.

It also said that all “payments for goods sold/delivered, we accept in good faith and we are not in the position to question the source of the said funds unless there was clear evidence that the same were ill-gotten funds.

“Any issue of money laundering is totally beyond our knowledge”.

“Our stand is very clear, to offer our utmost commitment and cooperation towards the government and MACC in order to restore Jakel’s image,” it added.