[UPDATED] MACC seizes Ilham Tower

KUALA LUMPUR – The Ilham Tower on Jalan Binjai here has been seized by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Buletin TV3 reported MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirming the seizure, while another source said the seizure notice was issued on Monday.

The commercial building is owned by a prominent businessman who is also a former minister.

Channel News Asia also reported the building’s seizure tonight, and named former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin as the target, after MACC began investigations into his financial holdings in May.

In May, MACC began investigating Daim, 85, over alleged misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in public funds in the 1990s.

This was when Daim was finance minister, and when the government, under then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had overseen the “forced” takeover of shares of a public-listed company that later caused the stock market to plunge.

This took place amid the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and was dubbed a bailout of certain business figures closely linked to the government then.

Daim was also reportedly under investigation over information about his wealth as leaked in the 2021 Pandora Papers, which detailed prominent names involved in transactions in offshore financial centres.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in February had ordered agencies such as MACC and the Inland Revenue Board to continue investigations into big names mentioned in the Pandora Papers.

Since leaving public office, Daim has acknowledged that various reports on alleged corruption have been lodged against him, and that MACC has investigated him each time. He maintained that despite all this, he had never been charged.

MACC has revealed little to the public about its current probe into Daim but according to Channel News Asia, Daim had refused to comply with the agency’s requests for disclosure of his family’s financial holdings.

The former Umno treasurer had reportedly sought extensions to comply with MACC’s requests.

Early this month, however, MACC reportedly notified him that no further extensions would be granted, leading to the seizure of the Ilham Tower. – December 21, 2023