Bukit Aman ready to help
PETALING JAYA: Bukit Aman is ready to help in investigations into the controversial purchase of property in Melbourne involving Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) senior officers but there has been no request from Australia yet.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department Comm Datuk Seri Mortadza Nazarene said police were aware of the case based on the recent media reports.
“We are always ready to help in any way but so far, we have not received any request from Australia. The investigation is being conducted in Melbourne and we can only get involved if local police ask for assistance,” he said yesterday.
Meanwhile, a source indicated that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had already started investigations into the controversial deal even before the media expose.
“We had already been looking into the matter even before the reports appeared in the media. We also sent investigators to Australia,” he said.
However, the commission has not made any findings.
“Investigations are still ongoing. We have to find elements of corruption before taking further action,” he said.
In the latest development, Australian daily The Age reported that Australian Federal Police officers seized computers and files from a house in Vermont South yesterday as part of investigations into Mara’s purchase of properties.
It is learnt that several other properties in and around Melbourne were also targeted in the investigations.
The investigations – codenamed Operation Carambola – were in response to a scheme using multi-million dollar properties to launder funds and to pay kickbacks.
Mara Inc’s top officials, including chairman Datuk Mohammad Lan Allani, were named in a report by an Australian daily over bribery allegations in relation to the property deals.
Mohammad Lan, Umno’s former Sulabayan assemblyman, told The Age that he was involved in setting up offshore companies in tax havens as a “convenient” way of selling property bought by the Malaysian Government.
Others named in the report were Mara Inc’s chief executive officer Datuk Halim Rahman and two Malaysian businessmen.
It was reported that fraud was detected in the inflated price of Dudley House in Melbourne but Mara chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa said allegations of the inflated price were outside Mara’s knowledge.
The Dudley House apartment block was bought by Mara in 2013.
A report said the investigations cover about A$80mil worth of Australian property, including office or apartment blocks in Swanston, Queen and Exhibition streets in Melbourne.
It said the matter was uncovered by tracing the purchase of tens of millions of dollars of Australian properties via tax-haven shelf companies in the British Virgin Islands and Singapore.
It said property records and confidential emails revealed that A$4.75mil (RM13.4mil) bribe was asked in return for guaranteeing that funds would be available to purchase the building.
Mara chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa has decided to remain silent and not react to demands by DAP that he be removed from the post over the Dudley House deal.
“Is there a need for me to respond to this? I’m not making any statement today,” he said when contacted.
Annuar was earlier reported to have said the purchase took place before his appointment. However, Annuar said, he had “found a few things” when he visited the property in Melbourne last year and on his return, had raised a few issues with Mara.
The Age reported that Malaysians linked to Mara overpaid developers of Dudley International House by A$4.75mil for a five-storey apartment block in the city in 2013, paying A$22.5mil (RM65mil) when the property was valued at A$17.8mil (RM51.4mil).
Two DAP lawmakers have called for Annuar’s sacking, pointing out that previous property transactions by Mara have also been controversial.
