Police report lodged over Mara’s Aussie property buys

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 18): A whistleblower group and a former student activist lodged a police report today over Majlis Amanah Rakyat's (Mara) purchase of properties in Australia. National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW) director Akmal Nasir said he and PKR Youth student bureau chief Fahmi Zainol lodged the report at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

Akmal said the report was to get authorities to investigate the "scandal" involving the purchases, for which Mara had overpaid by RM129 million. 

He said the report was lodged because Mara had “failed” to settle the scandal, even though its chairman had assured that appropriate action would be taken when the scandal was revealed about eight months ago.

"It is also to initiate investigations on individuals named by an Australian court," he said, adding that documents filed in the Australian court as the basis of the investigation and proof of the involvement of those individuals were also given to the police.

"The documents included the Statement of Claim and several invoices, as what was revealed by (Pandan MP) Rafizi Ramli previously, an organisation chart of the company and court transcripts," he said in a statement today.

He said the chart showed how three people and three companies that received payments of RM14 million were linked to the issue.

Akmal said they also wanted the police to probe if there were elements of criminal breach of trust, especially if Mara's top management or politicians were involved.

"We hope this report will be a way to recover the money overpaid and returned to Mara.

"We hope this can help protect the interest and welfare of the people, especially youths who are students and entrepreneurs who deserve aid from Mara."

Last year, NOW highlighted how Mara had allegedly overpaid for several properties in Australia.

Akmal said Mara overpaid some RM18 million for a property on Queen Street, RM14 million for Dudley House and close to RM30 million for a property on Exhibition Street. Mara's purchases were also under investigation by Australian authorities. – The Malaysian Insider