Is MACC playing musical chairs with law, lawyers ask after second seizure

Summary

• Lawyers of Daim Zainuddin's wife Na'imah Abdul Khalid strongly criticise the MACC for its repeated seizure of Ilham Tower, calling it the "most ridiculous action yet taken" by the agency.

• They ask about the legality and motive for the second confiscation, and if the MACC is "playing musical chairs with the law".

• They plan to challenge the move in court immediately.

Na'imah Abdul Khalid's lawyers strongly condemned the MACC for what they called a baseless and repeated seizure of Ilham Tower.

Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal said the MACC's latest move was the “most ridiculous action yet taken”.

They argued in a press statement that the property had already been seized once before and questioned the legality and motive behind its second confiscation.

"Is the MACC playing musical chairs with the law?

"It bears repeating that despite the prime minister and the MACC chief’s repeated allegations and insinuations against (Na'imah's husband) Daim Zainuddin, no offence of corruption has been brought against him.

"Now, having failed to bring any charges against him, they are harassing our client with a second seizure. In short, they want to keep seizing our client’s property even though there’s no evidence of corruption," they said today.

The pair also announced plans to immediately challenge the seizure of Ilham Tower in court.

The first confiscation occurred in 2023 when the MACC seized the building under the MACC Act 2009.

Yesterday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed the MACC to seize seven properties belonging to Daim’s family.

Among those seized, via an ex parte application, are three luxury homes in London and one bank account, said to be worth RM758.2 million.

The assets are among the items being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) and Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amlatfpuaa).

In response, Na'imah said she would use all legal means at her disposal to challenge the order and vowed “to not bow down to bullies”.

Probe continues

On May 22, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said he was pushing for any of Daim’s undeclared assets to be seized and surrendered to the government.

Azam said MACC has already frozen Daim’s assets worth around RM2 billion and believed they can find much more as investigators are still looking at wealth kept by the former finance minister, his family members and “proxies”.

Daim, who died on Nov 13 last year, came under the spotlight again after the graft buster launched investigations against him for suspected graft and money laundering.

The retired politician was charged with failing to abide by MACC’s notice to disclose his assets encompassing 38 firms, 25 pieces of land and property, seven luxury vehicles, and two investment fund accounts.

Following his death, Daim was acquitted of all the charges after the prosecution withdrew its case against him.

However, MACC is continuing its probes into the financial trail of assets linked to Daim and his family.

MACC gets approval to seize Daim's Ilham Tower again

Na'imah to represent late Daim in bid to unfreeze accounts

MACC applies to freeze foreign assets linked to Daim's wife, family

'I will not bow to bullies': Daim's wife to fight asset seizure by MACC

Court allows MACC to seize more assets belonging to Daim's family