KUALA LUMPUR – Operations within Ilham Tower remain unaffected despite the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) recent seizure of the building, with no visible signs of officials from the graft buster present.
Members of the media who gathered outside the building reported that operations were proceeding smoothly.
Employees were seen being able to access Ilham Tower as usual, with one unnamed staff member saying that “it’s business as usual”, in response to the MACC’s seizure notice.
Meanwhile, a Bernama report quoted an employee from the building who claimed there has yet to be any instructions from the management regarding a halt in operations.
However, he anticipated a meeting soon to discuss security measures in light of the recent developments.
The MACC seized Ilham Tower on Monday in connection with an alleged embezzlement case involving billions in state funds.
The case reportedly implicates former finance minister and corporate figure Tun Daim Zainuddin, whose office was located in the seized building.
The seizure notice, dated December 18, 2023, was published on an online news portal and signed by MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.
The notice directed the Registrar of Property Rights, Office of the Director of Lands and Minerals of the Federal Territory, to confiscate Ilham Tower under Section 38(1) of the MACC Act 2009 (Act 694) and Section 376(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Channel News Asia reported that the building was seized last night after the MACC initiated an investigation into Daim’s 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 leaked in the 2021 Pandora Papers, which detailed prominent names involved in transactions in offshore financial centres.
In February, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered agencies such as the 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. – December 22, 2023