MACC probes status change of houses from Bumi to non-Bumi

This was presumably done as Bumiputera housing units fetch higher prices.

(FMT) – Six men, including the son and special officer of a Johor civil servant, were detained on suspicion of corruption for changing the status of Bumiputera houses to non-Bumiputera.

A source said they were believed to have been doing this since 2013 with the help of several developers in Johor.

This had presumably denied qualified Bumiputera buyers from buying such units.

“The change in status was done because the prices of the non-Bumiputera units will then shoot up.

“This will benefit the developers and those involved in the activity but at the expense of those seeking to own homes,” he told Bernama today.

The developers are believed to have registered the 30% Bumiputera units under the names of their Bumiputera workers.

The developers would apply to the state government to change the status of the houses with Bumiputera status to that of non-Bumiputera with the excuse that the houses could not be sold.

The developers got away with this by telling genuine Bumiputera buyers that all such Bumiputera units had been sold.

“The developers would be fined a certain rate and the fine should rightly go into a special fund which was set up to be used to finance facilities in housing areas,” he said.

However, the source said only a part of the money paid for the fine was entered into the special fund while the rest was believed to have been misappropriated.

MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner (Operations) Azam Baki, when contacted by Bernama, confirmed that MACC was investigating the existence of fraud in the change of status of houses from Bumiputera to non-Bumiputera.

“We are in the process of ransacking the suspects’ offices to obtain documents to help the investigation team gather more information on the fraud.

“I don’t rule out the possibility that more would be arrested in the investigations into the case,” he said.

Yesterday, the MACC detained the six men, aged 25 to 50, at several locations in Johor Bahru in a simultaneous operation.

Also detained were two developers, a lawyer and a member of the public believed involved in the scandal.

MACC also seized 21 luxury cars, five high-powered motorcycles, cash of RM500,000, including foreign currency, and documents.

In addition, 45 bank accounts belonging to all the suspects involved, amounting to RM15.5 million, were frozen to help in investigations.