Police have taken former MACC chief Azam Baki's statement on two cases.
Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director M Kumar said the first case was over a Bloomberg article containing "defamatory" remarks about Azam's shareholdings in Velocity Capital Partner Berhad.
The second is regarding businessperson Albert Tei's claims that the ex-top graftbuster had made threats against him and abused his power.
Kumar said both cases would be referred to the Attorney-General's Chambers for further advice and instructions.
In the first case, Bloomberg published an article on Feb 10 that Azam owned 17.7 million shares in Velocity Capital, a financial services company - which the portal estimated at the time of publication was worth close to RM800,000.
Malaysiakini had verified the shareholdings by checking the Companies Commission of Malaysia records that same day.
READ MORE: Azam has shares in another company worth over RM1m
Azam has since filed a RM100 million defamation suit against Bloomberg and its Malaysian office, Bloomberg (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, over the article’s publication.
Azam's contention with the Bloomberg article is regarding a line that said the then-MACC chief had not publicly declared his assets.
He admitted to the shareholdings but denied any wrongdoing, saying that he had declared it to the Public Service Department (PSD). He also said the shares had been sold off the year before.
However, the Velocity Capital shares owned by Azam were in excess of the limits placed on civil servants, who cannot buy more than RM100,000 worth of shares in any single company.
Probe after backlash
Following backlash, a three-member committee led by Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar investigated the issue and submitted their report to Chief Secretary to the Government Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar in March.
The PSD disciplinary committee was supposed to convene and deliberate on the matter, but there have been no updates as of today.
The cabinet had also ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate allegations of “corporate manipulation, following a Feb 12 Bloomberg report which alleged that the MACC, including its higher-ups, has colluded with businesspersons in schemes to muscle out rivals and stage corporate takeovers.
Politicians from both sides of the divide, including those from government party DAP, had also urged the formation of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to probe the claims, but failed to advance the matter.
MACC has denied allegations that its officers are involved in the “corporate mafia” scheme, dismissing such claims as baseless while alleging they are part of a smear campaign intended to undermine the agency’s reputation.
Separately, the second case referenced by Kumar in his statement today refers to a police report lodged by Tei alleging that Azam had threatened and attempted to stop him from exposing the Sabah mining licences scandal in November 2024.
Addressing a press conference on May 26, Kumar said Tei had claimed Azam threatened him through the latter's lawyer.
However, on May 29, Tei filed a police report against Kumar, with the businessperson claiming that he had never made the allegation in his earlier report or in his statements recorded by an investigating officer.
Azam denies meeting businessperson
Following his session with Bukit Aman today, Azam reportedly denied all of Tei’s allegations, insisting that he had neither met the businessperson nor had they undertaken any dealings.
“I have also never sent a lawyer to meet any party on my behalf,” Sinar Harian quoted Azam as saying.
He added that he had provided his full cooperation after arriving at the federal police headquarters around 9am this morning, with the statement recording process having taken about two hours.
Previously, Azam had threatened legal action against Tei over the latter’s allegations, which he asserted had tarnished his reputation. - FMT
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