Was Azam lying about his trading account, ask MPs

 

Opposition MPs have asked the Securities Commission to clarify its statement, in which it said Azam Baki was the account holder and operated it on his own.

PETALING JAYA: MPs have questioned if Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki was lying when he said his brother had used his account to purchase shares, following the Securities Commission’s (SC) latest statement.

Earlier today, the SC said Azam was the named account holder, and had control of the trading account in question. The statement added that the top graft buster had also operated the account he opened, giving instructions to buy, sell and transfer securities from it.

Several opposition lawmakers took to social media to react to the SC’s statement, with Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii saying it seemed to imply that Azam had full control of his account and purchased the shares himself.

“If a public officer of his stature openly lied to the public he is supposedly accountable to, he has no other choice but to resign, no questions about it,” the Sarawak DAP leader said in a Twitter post.

Subang MP Wong Chen said SC’s “clarification” on its statement yesterday had only made the case “more intriguing”, since Azam had previously said that his brother, Nasir Baki, had used his account to buy the shares.

“I implore the SC to give us more details and answer a simple question: ‘Did the SC interview Azam Baki to arrive at the decision that there was no breach of Section 25(4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991 (Sicda)?’,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Muda vice-president Lim Wei Jiet asked the SC to clarify whether Azam or Nasir was the beneficial owner of the shares.

He said if Nasir was the beneficial owner, that would have been in breach of Section 25(4) of Sicda.

“If it was Azam, then Azam was lying when he said his brother bought the shares using his account,” he said. - FMT