He has always taken a straight and narrow path, maintaining a low profile after entering the corporate world four decades ago.
Despite helming companies and engaging in sports, he always played by the book - guiding and supporting from the sidelines while deliberately avoiding the headlines.
But for four months, beginning January, his name was dragged through the mud - mugshots splashed across news pages and new portals, accused of money laundering and corruption.
It started in March last year, when a news portal linked the company he chairs to the RM177 million cash and gold haul at the “safe house” of a former aide to the ninth prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
A report was lodged with the MCMC, and the MACC denounced the online allegations as “malicious” and warned of legal action, but it went no further.
MACC then acknowledged the complaint, but after nine months of silence, when the Sunway Group made a takeover bid for IJM Corporation Bhd in January, the story took a darker turn.
Money laundering probe
The Scoop reported that MACC had named two key IJM executives - chairperson Krishnan Tan and adviser Seow Wah Chong as persons of interest in a money-laundering probe.
The allegations escalated: breaches of corporate governance, procurement processes, money laundering, and foreign assets - stretching beyond Malaysia.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, former MACC chief Azam Baki said, was investigating suspected money laundering and corruption tied to multibillion-ringgit investment deals, including transactions worth RM2.5 billion, involving the two executives.
IJM, however, rejected the claims. It said that since 2012, its UK investments had been funded primarily through facilities raised from Malaysian financial institutions before being remitted to special-purpose vehicles in the UK.
Despite Tan declaring that, as a non-executive chairperson, he is not involved in the day-to-day operations and management of the company, the probe and the headlines continued.
He was arrested and released after 24 hours on “health grounds”, but the saga deepened with reports of MACC raids, accompanied by Inland Revenue Board officers, at his house and office - along with the freezing of IJM’s bank accounts.
MACC also said the investigation was focused on tracing and seizing other assets suspected to have been obtained through money laundering activities, with 15 witnesses, including the suspect’s wife, called to have their statements recorded.
Meanwhile, the division’s senior director, Zamri Zainul Abidin, said the case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009 and Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
Abrupt end
But yesterday (Friday), after four months of anxiety, stress, anger, and worry, it finally came to an end.
In a note to Bursa, IJM announced the MACC had exonerated Tan, but critical issues remain unresolved.
This means there was no RM2.5 billion in the first place and, consequently, no transfers of funds to the UK, which also means no individuals were involved.
The conclusion is clear: no money laundering took place.
In the first place, did IJM ever have this colossal sum to launder? An inspection of its annual reports provides the answer.
Its accounts are audited both internally and externally, and the numbers speak plainly: except for Petronas, the banks, and a handful of conglomerates, no Malaysian company generates profits on that scale.
How does one move RM2.5 billion across the high seas without going through the banking system, which itself asks questions even when one remits money overseas for one’s children?
Yes, the hawala system does provide a service - albeit an illegal one - but not for sums of this magnitude.
Years ago, an Umno leader who remitted RM8 million to the UK was caught, though he claimed he was merely “safeguarding” party funds in case Umno was deregistered, as had happened before.
Do our authorities take action once a report is lodged? Do they chase frivolous claims, or have they adopted an “arrest first, investigate later” policy?
When billions can vanish into the ether of “foreign investments”, when raids and arrests are staged before facts are established, and when complaints to regulators disappear into a black hole, the question is no longer about one company or one chairperson.
It is about the machinery of enforcement itself.
Did IJM ever have RM2.5 billion to launder? The annual reports suggest otherwise.
And if such colossal sums can supposedly cross borders without the banking system raising alarms, then either our institutions are asleep at the wheel or complicit in the charade.
Sandiwara
Malaysia has seen this playbook before: anonymous allegations, viral scoops, arrests first, investigations later.
Each time, reputations are shredded, confidence erodes, and the public is left wondering whether the law is being applied or merely performed.
As I noted in previous commentaries, the real danger is not the spectre of conspiracies or foreign cabals, but the corrosion of accountability.
When enforcement becomes theatre, justice becomes selective. And when regulators investigate critics more swiftly than they probe billion-ringgit scandals, the public learns a bitter truth: in Malaysia, the law is not blind - it is partisan.
Like many others before him, what recourse do they have when they become “victims” of anonymous online allegations, which are later picked up by news portals claiming to have a scoop?
In March, I wrote about how an engagement with a group of spin doctors, Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, the widow of the late finance minister Daim Zainuddin, turned into a conspiracy theory to overthrow the government.
“In Malaysia, conspiracy theories don’t survive on evidence - they survive on seasoning.
Sprinkle in ‘Zionists’, stir in ‘foreign plots’, and suddenly the blandest allegation becomes a fiery dish for public consumption.
“What began as a recycled slogan scandal has now metastasised into a political reflex: when cornered, invoke the spectre of Jews and foreign cabals.”
Last week, I wrote again: “What is truly destabilising is not the alleged plotting in online meetings, but the erosion of public confidence when institutions appear more interested in theatre than truth.
“When allegations can be lodged with ease, amplified by viral reports, and then left to rot without resolution, the public is left to wonder whether democracy is being defended or merely performed.
“The real danger lies not in whispered schemes to topple governments, but in the steady corrosion of accountability - when the law becomes a shield for the powerful and a sword against lesser mortals.”
Supposed leaks from disgruntled employees, spin doctors, and self-appointed strategic consultants should be treated as potential sources of information warranting further investigation.
But in many cases, based on such information, many who were viewed as witnesses and innocent parties became the accused without proper investigation - handcuffed and paraded in orange uniforms (some privileged are allowed to wear designer suits). Is this what justice is all about?
Erosion of trust
In the end, Tan and IJM may have been cleared on paper, but the scars run deeper than reputational bruises.
What lingers is the exposure of a system where faceless whispers can unleash raids, arrests, and frozen accounts - while regulators yawn at formal complaints.
If RM2.5 billion could supposedly slip through without scrutiny, then our institutions are not merely asleep at the wheel; they are either dangerously inept or precariously complicit.
And the questions remain: Who planted the claims? Was it a rival outfit, a grudge against selected individuals, using mercenaries-for-hire on social media who are willing to script headlines for a handful of silver?
The real scandal is not whether IJM had the money, but whether Malaysia has the will to uphold the rule of law without fear or favour.
Until enforcement agencies abandon theatre for truth, every corporate leader and even lesser mortals remain one viral “scoop” away from trial by headlines - and every citizen is one step closer to losing faith in law and enforcement.
The exoneration comes three days after Azam’s retirement. Coincidence, choreography, or a farewell flourish - a statement that the past is neatly shelved and a “new era” conveniently declared.
In Malaysia, timing is rarely accidental; it is theatre dressed as reform. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who strives to uphold the ethos of civil rights leader John Lewis: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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