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KUALA LUMPUR: Hundreds of fictitious (fake) companies were created by a money laundering syndicate linked to the businesses of some of the country’s celebrities to mislead authorities, said MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki.
Without revealing the number of these companies, he said that all the companies detected by the MACC were deliberately created to funnel illegally obtained union money.
“The modus operandi of these fictitious companies is that when the members of the money laundering syndicate receive that money, they will form a company that runs a business that appears legitimate in the public eye.
“This is where these shell companies receive the money and it will be channeled to various parties, such as merchants, to do business in cash. So these merchants don’t know where the money came from, ”he said on a talk show, ‘MACC Empowerment and Anti-Corruption Efforts’ on MACC radio.fm, here.
Azam said there were union members who used the illegally earned money to become unlicensed lenders or ‘Ah Long’ and mislead people. He said that MACC had frozen 730 bank accounts amounting to RM80 million believed to belong to the union.
“We also seized RM5 million in cash and 23 luxury vehicles, including Mustang, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Porsche, as well as several high-powered motorcycles believed to have been obtained from the union’s illegal activities,” he said.
Azam said his team had arrested 11 members of the public and eight of the authorities suspected of providing protection to the union.
“The MACC investigation found that this union has been operating for several years and we were curious how they could have done so without being detected by the authorities.
“The findings of our investigation led to the freezing of their laundered accounts and assets and MACC will take them to court and confiscate the money to be classified as government income as it belongs to the people who had been misled,” he said.
Azam said the people who protected the union were also under investigation as they were believed to be involved in allowing the union to operate and no action was taken.
“MACC is collaborating with the Inland Revenue Board to review the union’s tax history.
“The case is very complicated, so the investigation is not easy. So I ask the public to be patient as MACC is still verifying the assets that have been laundered, ”he said.
He also asked the public who had accidentally received or received money from any of the detained union members to contact MACC officers and said that the public who became a victim could act as a witness if they were willing to cooperate with the MACC. .
“I urge anyone who has dealt with this union to contact three MACC officers, namely Assistant Commissioner (PPJ) Asrul at 013-3126020, PPJ Rohaizi 013-9400200 and Chief Superintendent Sabri 017-2582415”, He said.
On Wednesday, Bernama reported that Police Deputy Inspector General Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani confirmed that five police officers were arrested on suspicion of involvement in a money laundering syndicate.
Earlier, a celebrity couple gave their statements in the investigation of this money laundering case. – Bernama
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