Malaysian commission recommends probe into former PM for forex losses

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Thursday recommended launching a probe into former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed.

In a report released on Thursday, the RCI said the 92-year-old political heavyweight deliberately ignored foreign exchange losses incurred by the central bank between 1992 and 1994, which amounted to 31.5 billion ringgit (7.71 billion U.S. dollars).

Malaysia's official news agency Bernama cited RCI Chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan as saying that the commission formed an opinion that there were deliberate concealment as the annual reports of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) did not state the actual losses incurred from the forex dealings at that time.

The commission also believed that former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim had deliberately concealed facts and information and made misleading statements to the cabinet led by Mahathir over the matter.

"The prime minister, who also had knowledge of the forex losses, did not correct or offer more information when the losses informed to the cabinet were not the actual losses," the report read.

The RCI was set up by the Malaysian government to probe into the country's central bank's foreign exchange losses in the 1980s and 1990s. The 524-page RCI report was submitted to the parliament Thursday.

At a hearing, Mahathir said he did not have direct knowledge of forex trading activities conducted by the central bank as well as the losses incurred. Enditem