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Friday, May 29, 2020

MACC chief dismisses reports linking agency to Israeli surveillance company

Malaysiakini

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki has rubbished reports by an Israeli technology news site that claimed the Israeli cyber startup Senpai had discussed a multi-million dollar deal with his agency involving the sale of surveillance technology.
"MACC has never heard of this company before, and we had no dealings with them whatsoever or acquired any system from them as alleged in the article.
"I am being very clear. I do not know where this story came from and who wrote such a fake story," Azam (above) told Malaysiakini.
Isreal-based technology news site CTech had cited court documents in claiming that the Malaysian government signed a deal to acquire a system that allowed it to gather information and analyse data on civilian activity.
The system was meant to be used by the Malaysian police's special branch (SB) to surveil political activists for the opposition, according to court documents obtained and reviewed by Calcalist, CTech's affiliated newspaper.
The company that developed and supplied the system was Senpai Technologies Ltd, a small Israeli cybersecurity startup that signed the deal in April 2018, just a month before ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak led BN to its first-ever electoral defeat.
The reports claim that as recently as the middle of last year, the company was discussing the possibility of a new contract with the SB, which had new implications in the aftermath of Najib's historic defeat.
The indication is that the objective of surveillance changed after the elections from political investigations to more criminal-terror investigations.
The court documents also revealed an email discussion involving Senpai co-founder Eric Banoun on the proposed phase two agreements which were discussed after Harapan took over in May 2018.
In the email discussion, Banoun estimated the deals could be worth US$300,000-US$400,000 (RM1.3mil-RM1.7mil) with the SB, between US$2 million and US$2.5 million (RM8.7mil and RM10.9mil) with the prime minister's office (PMO), between US$800,000 and US$2.2 million (RM3.5mil and RM9.6mil) with the MACC and a similar sum with the police.
"I don’t want to comment about others as I don’t know what facts they have," said Azam.
"But as for MACC we deny having a deal, having equipment, or any dealings whatsoever with this Senpai Ltd." he added.
"We weren't even given such a budget to buy such products. The finance ministry would have the records if we bought such things because our budget comes from them."
Azam was not the MACC chief at the time but was in charge of operations.
"I was not the chief commissioner of MACC at that time, but if there was such a purchase I would have known as I was in charge of operations.
"There was no such purchase made by the then chief commissioner (Latheefa Koya). If there was any plan, there would have been presentations and such," he said.
Former premier Najib has also denied the reports, saying that the first phase involved the SB and not the PMO, and that he would not have interfered in such a deal.
He also said the proposed second phase was worth at least three times as much and that Pakatan Harapan prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad should be questioned about it. - Mkini

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