Selangor Umno chief Noh Omar claimed today he has no knowledge of any link between funds received by the state chapter and 1MDB.

He said he only took over the state party leadership from then prime minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak in 2014.

This was a year after the funds from 1MDB were alleged to have been transferred to party accounts, as per claims he said were circulating on social media.

Noh was asked to comment on the freezing of some 900 accounts by investigators probing the 1MDB scandal, including those of Selangor Umno.

"It was circulated in social media that many state liaison offices received funds from 1MDB in 2013. I cannot comment on that because we don't know why (our bank accounts) were frozen," he said during a press conference after the opening of Tanjung Karang Umno division's election and assembly.

"The (alleged funding by) 1MDB happened in 2013, and if I were to be summoned by (the MACC, I will tell them) I have no idea because I did not issue cheques back then," he said, adding he had only been deputy secretary of the state liaison at the time.

Najib held the post of Selangor Umno liaison chief from 2009, one year after the state government fell to the then opposition Pakatan Rakyat. 

'Party divisions not to blame'

Cheras Umno division chief Syed Ali Alhabshee, meanwhile, maintained it is not the fault of party divisions if it had inadvertently received funds originating from 1MDB.

Syed Ali said even if this was found to be true, party divisions were not to blame.

“I pity whoever got the money and are now in this situation. I pity them because they did not know (where the money came from).

“They were given contributions and they took it,” he told the press on the sidelines of the Umno election in Cheras today.

Syed Ali, who was uncontested in his bid to head the division again, was relieved that neither Cheras Umno nor Federal Territories Umno had their bank accounts frozen.

“I don’t think (the probe) will affect Cheras or Federal Territories Umno, because we did not receive money from 1MDB. We have never received money from 1MDB.

“We are lucky in Cheras... our accounts were not frozen,” he said.

“As far as I am concerned, (in 2013) it was (FT Umno chief) Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who gave us the contributions, not the national headquarters,” he said.

Whistleblower website Sarawak Report previously revealed that money from 1MDB had allegedly been funnelled through Najib’s accounts to fund Umno and BN for the 2013 general election.