MACC after unidentified 1MDB assets worth RM18.904bil in five countries.
maCC pursuing rm19bil in properties in five countries
KUALA LUMPUR: An estimated RM18.904bil worth of unidentified 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) assets are being pursued by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in five countries, said its chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.
Latheefa said the MACC was working together with the National Financial Crime Centre (NFCC) to locate, investigate and research where these assets were.
“We need to work together with these countries to give us (the information). We will not be able to share that publicly as we are in the middle of investigation and we certainly do not want them to cover their tracks,” she said at the sidelines of the 11th International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2019 (IFCTF 2019) yesterday.
The IFCTF 2019 themed “Building Trust and Transparency: Collaborate,
Accelerate, Strengthen” is jointly organised by the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB) and the Compliance Officers’ Networking Group.
It is supported by Bank Negara Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority.
During the event, the MACC also noted that apart from the unidentified assets, RM3.93bil and RM8.842bil worth of 1MDB assets have been identified by the 1MDB task force and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) respectively.
On a separate matter, Latheefa also clarified that the MACC was still investigating the controversial land swap deals involving the Defence Ministry (Mindef ).
Latheefa said this following a report by news portal Malaysiakini noting that Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Hanipa Maidin had claimed that there was only one investigation paper opened on the land swap deals involving Mindef.
“I looked at the news, and apart from the headlines he did not say ‘only’. It is not true to say (that). I believe Hanipa was talking about one of the many cases of the land swap. MACC definitely received more than one, (it is) 16,” she said.
Latheefa said the land swap deals go back to more than 25 years, so, therefore, more time was needed, as they also faced difficulties in obtaining evidence.