Cops must now probe Azam, says MP

 

Sivarasa Rasiah says Azam Baki is still not off the hook as the Securities Commission Malaysia’s findings do not state that the money for the shares came from his brother.

PETALING JAYA: It is up to the police now to probe top graft buster Azam Baki after the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) concluded that it had not been able to determine if there was a breach of share trading rules, an opposition MP said today.

Sungai Buloh MP Sivarasa Rasiah added that the probe must include checks into bank accounts, bank statements and “who gave money to the remisier”.

“The police, with the help of SC, must initiate a probe as someone must have given the money to trade in the shares,” he told FMT.

Sivarasa, a lawyer, also asked if Azam’s earlier claim that his brother Nasir had traded in the shares was true as the SC, he said, had failed to establish the claim.

“Does this mean the SC is saying, without being explicit, that the money is not Nasir’s? This puts the onus back on Azam to explain where the money came from,” he said.

The SC today said it could not “conclusively establish” if the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief had broken any law over his ownership of shares.

“The SC has completed its enquiry and based on the evidence gathered, the SC is not able to conclusively establish that a breach under Section 25(4) (Sicda) has occurred,” it said in a brief statement.

Section 25(4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act (Sicda) 1991 provides that a trading account must be opened in the name of the beneficial owner or the authorised nominee.

Azam is alleged to have bought millions of ringgit worth of shares and warrants in public-listed companies. The value of the shares is much higher than the RM100,000 cap on equity holdings allowed for a civil servant.

He has denied any wrongdoing and has said that his brother, Nasir, had bought the shares using his account, and that the shares were all transferred to Nasir’s account shortly after.

The parliamentary select committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow to discuss the issue has been postponed, with Parliament secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin saying that this was due to issues that needed to be referred to the legal adviser of Parliament. - FMT