Published details of Rosmah and Roslan verified

News portals use Facebook, Whatsapp and internet checks to verify personal information and banking details furnished by Sarawak Report yesterday

KUALA LUMPUR: The man named by Sarawak Report yesterday as the personal assistant of Rosmah Mansor who allegedly conducted several banking transactions on her behalf is believed to have attempted to delete his Facebook account shortly after the publication of the report yesterday in an attempt to ward off prying internet sleuths.

He may have been too late.

Resorting to the internet and social media, Sarawak Report researchers, journalists from Malaysiakini and just about every inquisitive internet-savvy Malaysian quickly managed to verify the information.

They located a Facebook page belonging to one ‘Roslan Sohari’, a rank warrant officer with the military, who described his profession as “Resident Manager at the Prime Minister’s Office.”

‘Roslan’ posted several photographs taken with Najib inside an aeroplane and even one on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

His Facebook timeline also showed that he had ‘checked in’ at various overseas locations at the same time that Najib was there, including Jeddah, Kazakhstan, Beijing and New York.

He also appeared to be in Padang, Indonesia, on August 26 last year. Rosmah was there at the same time, as reported by The Star [here].

Apart from that, the mobile telephone number recorded against Roslan’s name in the image uploaded by Sarawak Report linked to a Whatsapp account which carried a profile picture resembling the person on the Facebook page.

Malaysiakini also claims that it managed to establish the authenticity of the NRIC number and the Affin Bank account details provided by Sarawak Report for Rosmah through routine checks it conducted on the internet.

Sarawak Report claims that the bank account in question is under investigation by the multi-agency task force established to inquire into allegations of misappropriation of 1MDB funds.

In the age of the internet and social media, these are the inherent risks.