KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — A 84-year-old former minister reportedly gave a statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday, in relation to the two-year-old Pandora Papers scandal.
Utusan Malaysia today quoted an anonymous source saying that the former minister was called into the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya to explain the money flow of 12 offshore companies owned by the latter and his family.
“It is understood that the MACC is focusing its investigations from various angles to track if assets and investments that the leader and his family are involved in overseas resulted from government projects,” the source reportedly said.
The source reportedly added that the MACC is still in the early stages of the investigation — now looking at the flow of financial transactions in the companies involved — and no bank accounts have been frozen.
He was also quoted as saying that a son of a former prime minister will also be giving a statement to the MACC today, and that there is a possibility that more people will be called in for the Pandora Papers investigation.
The Pandora Papers — an investigation report involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian — was released in October 2021, and is based on document leaks from 14 financial services companies worldwide.
Two Malaysians were among the 336 global politicians alleged in the report to be using offshore companies to hide ill-gained wealth.
A Malaysian investigation was announced on October 25, 2021, by former de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who said that the authorities would need time to investigate as the supposed criminal activities took place around 10 years ago.
