Despite the police arrest and an unflattering media blitz against him, Lebanese 'billionaire' Elie Youssef Najem refuses to be silenced.

Yesterday, he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that he needed his passport to enable him to open bank accounts to credit a cheque for RM950 million that he was expecting from overseas.

At a press conference later, he also claimed that RM1.166 billion had already been transferred from an overseas account into a Maybank account.

He added that his lawyer and a Maybank officer, whose phone number he provided, could confirm the transaction.

However, a check by malaysiakini failed to confirm this.

'Number does not exist'

The phone number Najem had provided of one 'Mr Arman of Maybank' does not exist, according to the telephone directory operator.

Contacted later, two of his lawyers S Shanmugam and M Manoharan also claimed to be in the dark over the matter.

They were also unsure who in Elie's 'team of 33' lawyers was handling the transaction matter.

Despite numerous attempts, Mohd Farid Ariffin, president of the National Cancer Council (Makna) to which Najem had pledged RM1.07 billion, could not be reached.

Elie's father-in-law Mohd Farid Abdullah also could not be reached for comment.

Alleged fraud

The 46-year-old Lebanese businessman made headlines after pledging the huge donation to Makna. He also told a press conference that he was worth US$46 billion, making him among the richest in the world, and that he was suffering from brain tumour.

However, reports of him being an alleged fraud began to surface soon after.

Elie, who is married to a 19-year-old Malaysian, was later arrested and detained for investigations in relation to charges of criminal intimidation and cheating.