A poster detailing the launch of the 'Billion Dollar Whale' is pictured at the entrance of Kinokuniya, Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur on September 17, 2018. — Picture by Hari Anggara

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 ― Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah may not have read Billion Dollar Whale well when he said that the book had cleared his client Datuk Seri Najib Razak of wrongdoings as he was misled or cheated by Low Taek Jho, according to Tom Wright.

“It’s nonsense, Shafee didn’t read the book properly for sure,” the journalist and author of the book said in an interview on BFM’s Breakfast Grille show this morning, responding to the lawyer’s claim.

He said, they (the authors) were fair to Najib in the book, as they had pointed out that the former prime minister did not know everything that took place and that only Low knew.

But Wright said that did not absolve Najib from any wrongdoings.

“Najib probably didn’t know that RM4.5 billion or more was taken from the Malaysian people but he did know it was slush funds and all his assets getting purged including the house they were staying in, all the businesses in the US, the film company and the US$27 million pink diamond from Lorraine Schwartz Najib’s wife Rosmah got,” he said.

Wright said, Najib repeatedly said that the money was a donation from the Arab Saudi royals and the money was returned.

“But money went back to an offshore company Tanore Finance,” he said.

“The money neither came or went to the Saudi, the money came from 1MDB via Tanore and went back to Tanore and from there it was used to buy the RM27 million jewellery from Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor,” he added.

On the making of the book, he said it started in 2015 when news emerged of financial transactions involving 1MDB that “didn’t make any sense”.

Upon further scrutiny, he said it was discovered that a major scandal involving a sitting prime minister was brewing.

“We wrote a front page story on how 1MDB had overpaid for power plants and in return Tanjong Energy Holdings and Genting Berhad paid massive amounts of money to Yayasan 1MDB. This was one of the transaction that didn’t make any sense,” he said.

*Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously referred to Tanjong Energy Holdings as Tan Chong, and has since been amended.