Without apologising, WSJ now says 1MDB funds went to Switzerland, not S’pore

(Malaysian Digest) – “An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the money was sent to 1MDB’s account at the private bank’s Singapore branch,” said the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in a footnote to the original article published on June 7.

Just like that, the international financial daily absolved itself of wrongly slandering 1MDB and implying its role in shady financial transactions involving Singaporean banks.

WSJ changed the statement in the article ‘Goldman Probed Over Malaysia Fund 1MDB’ which was reported on 7 June 2016 without apology.

This time around, WSJ claims that the fund was in fact sent to the offshore bank BSI SA in Switzerland instead of Singapore.

Now WSJ says Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wired US$3 billion in proceeds from a March 2013 bond issued by Malaysia’s 1MDB to the state fund’s account in Switzerland at BSI SA, according its ever familiar unnamed sources.

“We stand behind The Wall Street Journal’s coverage, which has been responsible, appropriate, and in the public interest. If we ever get anything wrong, we correct it in the interest of being 100 percent accurate.

“We remain committed to providing robust, even-handed coverage of events in Malaysia,” said a spokesperson for Dow Jones, the owner of WSJ.

Its earlier article incorrectly stated the money was sent to 1MDB’s account at the private bank’s Singapore branch (June 8, 2016) which was proven to be a lie when the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), officially replied that the Central Bank of Singapore’s investigation showed that no funds were transferred from Goldman Sachs.

WSJ’s new statement shows that the US-based financial daily still insists on waging its smear campaign against 1MDB fund and dragging Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s name into the fray, despite repeated incidences of their allegations being proven false as highlighted by Najib’s press secretary, Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad.

He claimed that it is clear that the WSJ had abandoned all pretense of independent reporting on Malaysia by presenting unverified lies of the Government’s opponents as facts.

“WSJ gave no evidence at all to support their claims, as is now standard process in their Malaysia reporting. In a cowardly tactic to avoid being sued, the WSJ attributes all its allegations to anonymous sources,” said Tengku Sarifuddin.