MACC has questioned Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s eldest son, Mirzan, to facilitate investigations into the Panama Papers leak.
The commission said a notice was also issued to him under Section 36(1)(b) of the MACC Act 2009, which requires him to declare all movable and immovable assets in Malaysia and abroad within 30 days.
According to a statement, MACC said Mirzan was at the commission’s headquarters in Putrajaya yesterday morning.
"This order is a further action from the MACC investigation regarding the information in the Panama Papers report and his business activities involving the sale and purchase of GLCs,” it added.
The investigation is also being carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Prevention of Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Illegal Activities 2001.
The anti-graft agency said it had started an investigation in August 2022 against all related entities named in the Pandora Papers report, as well as the Panama Papers.
"To date, a total of 10 witnesses have been called to record their statements.
"We are currently reviewing the financial documents and asset ownership of the entities listed in the reports and the investigation is still ongoing," added the MACC.
‘Rich kids, poor relatives’
In 2018, Mahathir had defended his children’s wealth, saying their success was due to their own hard work and had nothing to do with him.
“If they are rich now, it is through their own efforts.
“They are entitled to be rich, that is if they can become rich. But some of my relatives are as poor as a church mouse,” he said.
Mahathir was responding to Umno leaders, including former Umno supreme council member Mohamed Nazri Aziz, calling for the authorities to probe their wealth.
Stating that he was powerless to stop his children from doing business, he asked: “Were they rich when I was the prime minister? There was no rumour back then about their wealth.”
The Pandora Papers and the Panama Papers are two separate exposes by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with partners around the world, including Malaysiakini.
The Pandora Papers, published in 2021, involved a leak of 11.9 million documents from 14 offshore service providers that specialised in setting up shell companies in tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.
The Panama Papers expose in 2016 involved a leak of a huge tranche of records from Panama law firm service provider, Mossack Fonseca.
The firm provides services for the setting up of entities in tax havens where privacy laws are so stringent that the accounts established are virtually untraceable.
What did Panama Papers show about Mirzan?
In the Panama Papers, Mirzan was listed as having registered a British Virgin Islands firm - Sergio International Ltd - in 2002 but the firm was deemed inactive in 2006 and struck off.
However, when contacted, Mirzan's representative denied his involvement in Sergio International Ltd or the firm's relations with the Crescent Group of Companies.
Mirzan was at the time the CEO of Crescent Capital, a holding and financial advisory company.
In 2013, in another joint investigation with the ICIJ, Malaysiakini reported that Mirzan was among some 1,500 Malaysians with secretive offshore firms, revealed in documents leaked to the journalist consortium at the time.
In that leak - dubbed “Secrecy For Sale” - Mirzan was shown to own Crescent Energy Ltd, Utara Capital Ltd and Al Saad Investments Pte Ltd, all based in Labuan.
Offshore jurisdictions like the BVI and Panama are often dubbed tax havens and are often used by high-value individuals to keep their assets.
While owning offshore companies is not illegal, there has been public pressure for greater transparency of companies in trusts set up in such jurisdictions, there to combat tax evasion and money laundering. - Mkini
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