Trio 'posed as M'sian officials in Bangladesh', govt awaits official notice

The Home Ministry is waiting for a formal report from the Bangladeshi government before taking action against claims that three Malaysians had posed as government officials during an investigation into money laundering, extortion and migrant worker trafficking.

A source in the Home Ministry said this when asked about reports by two Bangladeshi news websites that three Malaysians had visited the country in September posing as government officials, and provided false information to Bangladeshi investigators.

“The Home Ministry cannot act only based on Bangladesh news reports. If it is true that three Malaysians had gone there and posed as Malaysian government officials, then Bangladesh should conduct an internal investigation.

"If they have evidence of such, they can lodge a formal report to us, and based on that report, we can act accordingly,” the source told Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini has also reached out to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail for comment.

'Claimed to be close to Anwar'

Earlier, two Bangladesh news websites reported that three Malaysians had visited Bangladesh at the request of various Bangladeshi manpower agencies.

According to the reports, the three Malaysians met with an investigating officer from the Paltan police station over a human trafficking and money laundering case.

They had introduced themselves as “representatives of the Malaysian government” and close associates of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

It was reported that they also posed as human rights activists, and at other times, representatives of the Malaysian Home Ministry.

These discrepancies prompted the Bangladesh police to contact the Malaysian branch of Interpol to seek the suspension of the Foreign Worker Central Management System (FWCMS) due to suspicion of misconduct.

FWCMS, owned by Bestinet Sdn Bhd, is the system through which all migrant workers coming into Malaysia are processed.

Previously, Bloomberg reported that Bangladesh police requested that its Malaysian counterparts arrest and extradite Bestinet founder, Bangladesh-born Malaysian Aminul Islam Abdul Nor and his associate, Bangladeshi citizen Ruhul Amin.

Both were accused of money laundering, extortion and human trafficking in the migrant worker recruitment industry.

However, Bestinet and Aminul, through a statement by their lawyer, denied the allegations.

Ruhul, when contacted by Bloomberg, also denied wrongdoing.

Datuk Seri, Datuk and Dr

Malaysiakini’s checks found that two of the individuals who posed as Malaysian government officials were titled “Datuk Seri” and “Datuk”, while the third held a doctorate in business administration.

When contacted, one of them who spoke to Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity, denied the claims made by the two Bangladeshi websites.

“We deny the claim that we posed as Malaysian government officials.

“We were in Bangladesh at the time, but for other purposes. We will issue a formal statement soon,” the individual said.

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