Malaysia’s anti-graft probe against Daim expands to Singapore’s defunct Malaysian stock-trading platform CLOB
The probe into Mr Daim’s financial affairs is now spreading to corporate personalities believed to be his business proxies and deals that he personally administered over when in government, including the closure of the over-the-counter stock-trading system in Singapore called CLOB in 1998.
(CNA) – Embattled former Malaysian finance minister Daim Zainuddin has been taken ill at a time when the investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is spreading beyond his family’s financial holdings and into the affairs of his business proxies, high-profile corporate personalities and a large cross-border corporate exercise with Singapore in the late 1990s.
Meanwhile, a separate fight is shaping up in the Malaysian courts.
The High Court on Tuesday (Jan 16) heard arguments from Mr Daim’s lawyers and government prosecutors over a suit filed by the former politician’s family for an order to compel the agency to halt all investigations against them, lift the seizure of Ilham Tower and return all documents and material that have been seized during the course of the probe.
Mr Tommy Thomas, Malaysia’s former Attorney General who is representing Mr Daim’s family, argued that the former politician was being subjected to an investigation under laws that were formulated after he had retired as a public official.
“Furthermore, Daim is already 85, and he may not remember events of 25 to 26 years ago, and this is unfair and may prejudice him,” Mr Thomas said.
Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin protested, arguing that there was no statutory limitation for the investigating authorities to investigate a purported crime and a ruling in Mr Daim’s favour would open the flood gates to halt other ongoing investigations.
Judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said that he would deliver his decision on the suit on March 4.
CNA understands that the frail and diminutive Mr Daim, who suffers from kidney-related ailments, was admitted last Friday into a private hospital in the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
It took place just hours before he was scheduled to meet with MACC investigators to record a statement on the ongoing anti-graft probe, according to three senior government officials who spoke to CNA on condition of anonymity.
The sources noted that the MACC investigators had requested to record the statement from Mr Daim at the Assunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya since Saturday, but his medical team insisted that he was in no position to be questioned.
The situation remains unchanged on Tuesday, according to the sources. Executives from Mr Daim’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
