Investigations on Customs officers ongoing

The MACC is still awaiting further directions from the AG Chambers in relation to the 62 Customs officers who were arrested in March.

KUALA LUMPUR: It’s been almost two months since 62 Customs Department officers were arrested in what was touted as a major crackdown involving four enforcement agencies, but todate none of the suspects have been charged in court.

This apparently is because the investigations involving MACC and three other enforcement agencies (Bank Negara, Police and Inland Revenue Department) are still ongoing.

Sources close to the probe revealed that so far no charges were being framed for any one of the officers.

“Its not like any other criminal cases. Here we are dealing with volume of documents and need to verify them with the relevent agencies, as well as banks.”

“Not only do we require supporting documents but also we need to establish how these people (customs officers) monetarily gained out of these transactions,” added the source.

However he added, most of the 62 officers were released after the task force recorded their statements.

“Not all of them are directly involved with the syndicate but are likely to appear as witnesses in the event others are charged with any wrongdoings,” he told FMT.

The source declined to reveal if investigations were at its tailend.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investgation director Mustafar Ali had announced on March 29 that it had busted a syndicate responsible for billions of ringgit in tax evasion, money laundering and illegal money outflows after raiding over 100 different premises nationwide.

Among the top officers who were arrested during the raids were a husband-and-wife team attached to the Pahang Customs Department.

They are suspected to be involved in an alleged money-laundering racket. They have however been released unconditionally.

The MACC officers had reportedly said at the time that their investigation papers had been submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and that they were awaiting further instructions.

The couple were detained on March 28 following a raid on their house where several hundred thousand ringgit in cash and jewellery were seized.

The task force led by the MACC, carried out raids simultaneously at five states involving 84 forwarding companies and 25 Customs premises.

No unusual wealth

In a related development, FMT learnt that most of the officers who were arrested and released had been reassigned to different tasks pending the disposal of ongoing investigation.

Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation team disclosed that “no unusual wealth or money” were accumulated by Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed who was found dead on the 1st floor badminton court of the MACC building in Jalan Cochrane here on April 6.

He said so far investigation had revealed that he had owned three houses and three old cars, which the decease had obtained through legal means.

“They were normal houses and cars, not luxury ones as initially suspected,” said the source.

Ahmad Sarbani, 56, who was attached to the Port Klang Customs Department, was reported to have gone there to retract his confession to his earlier statement over his alleged role with the syndicate.

Police have classified the case as sudden death.

A check with forwarding agents revealed that they were being continuosly “harrassed” by investigation officers to incriminate the customs officers with bribery and abuse of power.

“This show that their fishing expedition is still not over and they are putting us in very difficult position to carry on our business as usual,” said an agent based in Port Klang.

He also said forwarding companies were facing problems in securing the return of their seized documents whcih were not related to the probe.

“They randomly seized it and when we check with them on the status of documents, they just reply by saying these still studying the documents,” added the agent.