Company director among eight remanded for RM2mil graft involving Felda land

PUTRAJAYA: Eight individuals, including brokers, bank officers and a company director, have been remanded for alleged bribery involving close to RM2mil from a syndicate selling Felda-owned land in Melaka.

It is learnt that graft investigators arrested three brokers and two civilians in Kuala Lumpur while two bank officers and a company director were arrested in Sabah.

The suspects are said to be between the ages of 20 and 50.

It is learnt that a seven-day remand order until Monday (June 17) was obtained from Magistrate Lili Marisqa Khalizan at a Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (June 11).

In Kota Kinabalu, Magistrate Wan Farrah Afriza Wan Ghazali allowed the suspects, two women and a man, to be remanded for six days until Sunday (June 16).

Sources with knowledge of the case said early investigations showed that the three brokers, along with the company director and two civilians, had acted as middlemen and allegedly given bribes of almost RM2mil to the two bank officers.

Sources said the bribe was to “reward” the officers for helping them to open bank accounts, supposedly registered under Felda.

“The accounts had used Felda’s name to gain buyers’ trust and confidence that the sales transaction was genuine and indeed involved Felda, so they would make payments to the accounts.

“The action by the bank officers to (work) with the syndicate caused 260ha of Felda land worth RM400mil in Bukit Katil, Melaka to be sold last year,” said a source.

It is learnt that all eight suspects were detained between 6pm on Monday and 1am on Tuesday after being summoned to give their statements at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) offices in Kuala Lumpur and Sabah .

Sources said MACC had seized almost 200 accounts involving RM28mil belonging to individuals and companies.

MACC anti-money laundering and asset division director Datuk Zamri Zainul Abidin confirmed the arrests.