Kuala Lumpur, March 5 (IANS) Malaysian prosecutors here on Tuesday charged a former ally of former Prime Minister Najib Razak with multiple counts of money laundering.

Musa Aman, former Chief Minister of Sabah, was charged at a Kuala Lumpur court with 16 counts of money laundering amounting to $37 million, Xinhua news agency reported. The offences were committed between 2006 and 2008, reports say.

Musa was accused of indirect involvement in alleged money laundering activities by instructing a bank account to be opened at a Singaporean bank to receive proceeds from an illicit transaction.

He was also accused of indirect involvement in money laundering through receiving illicit funds from various companies and individuals through a foreign bank between 2006 and 2008. The largest recorded sum for a single transaction amounted to $16.15 million, the report said.

Musa has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is already facing 35 charges, filed in November 2018, for receiving $63.2 million in bribes in exchange for logging contracts.

--IANS soni/pcj