Sources say a top lawyer in Kota Kinabalu has been taken into custody by commission officers from Putrajaya.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) appears to have launched an operation to uncover a massive money laundering scheme involving hundreds of million of ringgit by politico-business high flyers in Sabah.

umno member investigated by macc sprm Informed sources have confirmed that a senior lawyer in Kota Kinabalu was taken into custody four days ago by top MACC officers from Putrajaya.

 

On Thursday night, according to other sources, a further five people were arrested in Kota Kinabalu.

The five include two accountants, one of them a young woman. All five - from two firms which had dealings with the senior lawyer - have been flown to Putrajaya for questioning.

 

According to sources, the senior lawyer had been away in Australia and Singapore and returned to Kota Kinabalu via the Kuala Lumpur International Airport “unknown to MACC officers keeping a watch for him” at the airport.

This set the MACC dashing off after him on the next available flight to the Sabah capital.

MACC sources in Kota Kinabalu, however, remained tight-lipped about the senior lawyer, who reportedly has strong links with the state government and Sabah Umno.

Checks with the senior lawyer’s practice in Kota Kinabalu proved inconclusive.

One source in his firm, after being asked for the senior lawyer, attempted to make contact with him by cellphone, and later confirmed that he was “outstation”.

The source could not say when he would be available. According to her, the lawyer has not been in the office since Tuesday.

‘Men in uniform visited office’

The source nevertheless confirmed that some men in uniform did visit her office on Tuesday but she did not know if they were from the MACC.

She added that she could not say how long they stayed and whether they carted away any material from the office.

Meanwhile, the lawyer’s secretary claimed that she was on leave on Tuesday. Had the MACC visited her office, she stressed, she would have known.

She also did not know anything about files being taken away from her office by the MACC. In any case, all her files are still with her, she added.

The secretary also could not say when her boss would be back and refused to disclose his current whereabouts.

Informed sources in Kota Kinabalu, meanwhile, report that MACC also picked up two timber contractors in Sandakan on Tuesday and flew them to Kota Kinabalu en route to Putrajaya.

This brings to six, excluding the senior lawyer, the known number of people held by Putrajaya MACC, which is reportedly working on “the money trail in Sabah Umno” . 

Four people were earlier held by the anti-corruption authorities sometime in the middle of last month and also taken to Putrajaya.

Sources claim at least two of them have been dispatched to Hong Kong for a money-laundering case reportedly pending there and scheduled for sometime next month after numerous delays.

‘MACC after wheeler-dealer’

The same sources also say that the MACC was after a well-known wheeler-dealer in Sandakan but he had apparently left last Wednesday by private jet to Singapore.

There is no indication that the man, who has extensive business links in the region, had fled Sandakan.

Other sources are privy to information that he was in fact held the same day in Sandakan after his private jet was not allowed to land in Singapore and was forced to turn back.

Apparently, his wife has been held too, based on a tip-off to MACC that she has US$100 million in unaccounted money stashed in Hong Kong. However, the arrest of the husband and wife could not be independently verified.

The wheeler-dealer with known business links to Sabah Umno was last in the news when he was apprehended at the Hong Kong International Airport on Aug 18, 2008 with RM16 million in cash which he could not account for.

hong kong 010705 street sign This aroused the suspicions of the Hong Kong authorities that they had stumbled on a money-laundering scheme linked to timber and other business activities in Sabah.

The Putrajaya MACC concern in Sabah appears to have been triggered off by the Hong Kong case.

Sabah Umno’s business empire

Here, the thrust of the investigations appears to be on Umno headquarters’ claim that they are completely in the dark about the extent of the Sabah Umno business empire.

Its preliminary investigations, according to reliable sources in the legal community, appear to suggest that Sabah Umno business activities are on the level, “except for the unfortunate link with the RM16 million case in Hong Kong” being in the news for the wrong reasons.

It is believed that much of the money laundered is related to kickbacks paid for timber concessions. According to a source, the kickbacks were paid in Singapore then moved to Hong Kong before transferred out to a Swiss account.

Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption has however frozen more than US$40 million (RM131 million) before the money being transferred out.

It is learnt that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail was Hong Kong recently to meet the local authorities there to discuss the matter.

Earlier reports

MACC nabs Sabah 'politically-linked' wheeler-dealers

'Millions in bag': Report to be filed in Hong Kong