Liew rebuts allegation he ‘misspent’ RM3.5mil from 1MDB given to party

De facto Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong (pic) has denied that he had “misspent” some RM3.5mil of 1MDB money credited to his former party’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) account in 2013.

(The Star) – The former LDP president said that he has no knowledge of what happened to the party’s funds from 2013 onwards, as he was no longer the party’s president then.

He said LDP ousted him as party president after he had lost the Sandakan parliament seat in 2013.

Liew, who is now permanent chairman of the ruling Parti Warisan Sabah, said no money under the party’s accounts were misspent and all transactions were recorded and accounted for in the accounting books, which were subsequently audited after acceptance and approval by the party’s delegates from 2006 to 2012.

“There were still monies left in the party’s account when they suspended me as a party member and removed me unconstitutionally as party chief sometime in October 2013,” he said.

Liew said former party president Datuk Teo Chee Kang and the current LDP acting president Datuk Chin Su Phin would be accountable for the funds from the moment he (Liew) was suspended from his party position in 2013.

Liew added that the monies in the party’s bank account were seized without his knowledge.

“How can I have access to the office when they locked it?” he asked, adding that they were responsible to answer investigators on the matter.

“They even changed my signatory for the bank (account) without my knowledge and took away all the party’s files, statements of account and other related documents,” he claimed in the statement issued Monday (Oct 1) after meeting Malaysian students at Malaysia Hall in London on Saturday (Sept 29).

As for why the party had accepted 1MDB money, Liew explained, “I was LDP’s chief for seven years from 2006 to 2013, there was no way it could be run without political funding, (including from 1MDB) as everyone knows.”

He is currently in London with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the second leg of his working visit to the United Kingdom after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept 29.

His response comes after a blogger known as steadyaku47.com claimed that Najib had issued a total of two cheques worth RM3.5 million under the name LDP in 2013.

The blog writer alleged that Liew, who was the LDP President back then, had pressured and forced the party’s treasurer to co-sign the cheques and cashed them out without the knowledge of other members.

The claims by the blogger were deemed as “factual” after the party’s acting president Chin claimed that the party’s secretary-general had given a similar statement to the police investigating 1MDB two weeks ago.

Liew said that whoever was the secretary-general who gave the police statement had no personal knowledge on the matter and believed it was based on “hearsay and speculations.”

Liew said the accusation that he pressured and forced the then treasurer general Ken Fong was simply unbelievable.

“It shows the extent of lies they are willing to go just to achieve their vicious agenda,” he said that he was confident that the truth would eventually prevail.

He underlined that all withdrawals of monies from the party’s account would have required the compulsory signature of the treasurer, along with one other signatory, either the then president (himself) or the then secretary-general Teo Chee Kang.