Former Bank Negara governor Muhammad Ibrahim has been questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

This on a 22.5-hectare plot of government land that the central bank had bought for RM2 billion in January this year, allegedly to bail out 1MDB, The Star Online reported today.

Quoting an unnamed highly-placed MACC source, the report said besides Muhammad, other officials at the bank were also questioned.

“We have recorded his statement and also from many other officers of BNM. What the MACC covers is mainly about the land sale (to the bank).

“On the issue of whether the sale was conducted in a proper manner, that depends on the central bank’s own probe,” the source said.

Bank Negara previously said it was conducting an internal investigation on the land sale, adding that several “relevant officers” had chosen to take leave of absence in the meantime.

'MACC will not interfere in bank's probe'

The MACC investigation will not interfere in the bank’s own probe, the source said.

“If BNM wants to investigate its own officers, that is its own internal investigation. We will not interfere,” the source was quoted as saying.

Muhammad had allegedly been questioned more than once, the report said, while the officers who have since left the bank include a former assistant governor and an assistant governor “recently promoted to the post”.

In June this year, Muhammad had offered to resign after serving just over two years of his five-year term.

He had denied facilitating the BN government in repaying 1MDB’s debts, pointing out that he had no control over how the government intended to spend the proceeds from the sale of the 22.5ha plot.

The bank had maintained that it acquired the land, located adjacent to the bank's Sasana Kijang complex in Kuala Lumpur, for the relocation of the Global Islamic Finance University and the International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance.

Muhammad was later replaced by Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, a former Bank Negara official who had probed 1MDB back in 2015.