KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will consider conducting an investigation into the trillions of ringgit allegedly deposited into off-shore bank accounts only if existing regulations have been breached, said Deputy Finance Minister II Mohd Shahar Abdullah.
This was in reference to information within the Pandora Papers exposé after Mohd Shahar was questioned by Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng if the government were going to investigate the alleged involvement of local funds deposited overseas.
“Concerning the investigations, that is currently under the consideration of the MOF on what is the next appropriate move.
“If they have gone against Act 758 and Act 759, then we will do something as we do not want to allow leakages from the country,” he said Mohd Shahar during his 12th Malaysian Plan winding-up speech.
He was referring to the Financial Services Act 2013 (Act 758) and Islamic Financial Services Act (Act 759)
In Parliament earlier this morning, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had said that any interested individual can open an off-shore bank account, provided they pass the processes concerning customer due diligence, also when questioned on the government’s stand of information within the Pandora Papers.
This after more than a dozen heads of state and governments, including those from Malaysia, was revealed to have used offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
This was the product of an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) media consortium.
Local names which were implicated include former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Zafrul himself.
