Calling such claims preposterous, Besser also stressed that the letter does not exonerate anyone.
“If anything, it raises further and more difficult questions. The remittances we reported were associated with the letter pledging the money came from an altogether different person, from the personal accounts of someone calling himself Prince Faisal bin Turki bin Bandar Alsaud.
“Meanwhile, who is this HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud? And crucially, who is behind Tanore Finance and Blackstone? None of these questions has been answered,” Besser told Malaysiakini.
The Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday, published a letter from Abdulaziz to Najib.
In the letter, the prince pledged US$375 million to the prime minister, stating that Najib could do as he pleased with the gift.
The prince also said he would remit the funds to Najib using his company bank accounts, such as British Virgin Islands-incorporated Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Ltd.
Blackstone has been linked by whistleblower Sarawak Report to businessman and Najib’s family friend, Low Taek Jho.
In response to the leaked letter, the Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday the document only confirmed Najib’s statement and the findings of Malaysian authorities that the money deposited into his personal bank accounts was a donation from a Saudi royalty.
"As the leaked letter from Saudi Arabia states, the donation was a gift to the prime minister for promoting moderate Islam, and his leadership in combating terrorism and extremism – such as by launching his Global Movement of Moderates initiative.
Declining to identify the source that revealed the letter, Besser, however, said that the information was the same with the information held by Ambank and also relied upon by the bank in processing large payments received by the prime minister.
“The source has no 'skin in the game', no agenda, no interest in what happens to the Malaysian prime minister. Reliability is impeccable,” he said.
Asked the reason why the letter was not published in the 'Four Corners’ documentary, Besser claimed that elements of the information had indeed been used in the documentary.
“But that's the nature of film-making – we can't fit everything into 45 minutes. Luckily for us, we also have a very strong news online service so the more document-heavy information was isolated for that,” he said.
In the documentary aired by the ABC last Monday, the programme cited a “high-level source” which showed banking documents that revealed “an extraordinary and steady flow of money between 2011 and 2014”.
Abdulaziz, therefore, was not the only person who has deposited large sums of money into the Ambank account purportedly belonging to Najib.
The depositors include the Saudi Ministry of Finance, Prince Faisal bin Turki bin Bandar Alsaud of Riyadh and SRC International chief executive and former 1MDB investment director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
Besser was also asked to respond to Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who said that the government may take action against him and his colleague over their critical report on Najib.
However, Besser said the Kuching police chief had extended a personal invitation to him to holiday there with his family.
“It would be a shame not to be able to take him on his kind offer,” he said.
Besser and camera operator Louie Eroglu were previously arrested and deported from Malaysia during the shooting of the documentary earlier this month, after they tried to pose questions to Najib on the cash flows into his bank account.
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