Daim's wife: My husband being persecuted for his success

Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin’s wife has claimed that the authorities are persecuting her husband for his success.

Na’imah Abdul Khalid said the government should never attempt to besmirch the reputation of individuals to “settle old political scores”.

“It’s public knowledge that Daim was a very successful businessperson prior to joining government in 1984. He was already widely referred to in the media as a tycoon and a multi-millionaire before taking public office 40 years ago.

“Now, a campaign of disinformation and misperception is being relentlessly spread suggesting that because he is very wealthy, he is therefore corrupt.

“There is no sense or logic in this, and no successful businessperson in the country will be safe from such an insinuation. And such accusations do not easily go away once out in the public domain,” she told reporters outside of the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya today.

She also claimed that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim suggested on several occasions that Daim had “illegal wealth”.

“Is the prime minister suggesting that hardworking and capable Malay businesspeople cannot become wealthy without resorting to improper or illegal means?

“This will only serve to perpetuate false stereotypes about the capabilities of the Malays,” she said.

She added that Anwar should respect the principle of innocence unless guilt is proven in a court of law.

Also present were Daim’s two sons.

Na’imah said all three of them were notified on Monday that they would be called in this morning to assist in the probe of the former minister.

Pandora Papers

The graft buster is investigating Daim over revelations regarding his wealth in the leak of international financial records known as the Pandora Papers.

The leaks found that, in those records alone, Daim’s children, wife, or known business associates jointly held assets worth at least £25 million (about RM141 million).

READ MORE: How Daim, M’sia’s uber-rich use S’pore to store money offshore

Daim previously responded to Malaysiakini’s report of the Pandora Papers saying trusts are part of estate planning and that all his dealings were legitimate with all taxes paid.

Having offshore entities is not illegal but in some instances, the practice has been linked to tax evasion or tax avoidance. In other cases, it is an attempt to maintain secrecy for various reasons.

The MACC had said that it sent a notice to Daim last June to declare his assets but alleged that this was not fulfilled even after five extensions requested by the former minister.

This subsequently led to the MACC seizing Ilham Tower, a high-commercial-value building Daim and his family own.

Daim decried the MACC probe as a political witch hunt, a claim which the graft buster denied.

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