Cops take months to reply to Singapore on investigation into Zeti’s husband

 

The Singapore Police Force said it is being ‘facilitative’ in handling requests from its Malaysian counterparts to assist investigations into money laundering allegations involving Tawfiq Ayman.

The statement came after Bukit Aman claimed it was still waiting for a response from Singapore to proceed with the investigation.

In the statement, the Singapore police said it had handled all of Bukit Aman’s requests in relation to the case promptly.

It said it received the Malaysian police’s request to travel to Singapore to conduct investigations on Dec 2 last year, which the Singapore police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) agreed on Dec 6 that year.

However, it took the Malaysian police nearly two months to respond when their Singapore counterparts proposed dates for the visit.

“We proposed multiple dates for the visit and also proposed arrangements to comply with the Covid-19 border measures. There were multiple correspondences subsequently.

“In the last correspondence on Jan 10, 2022, CAD proposed for the visit to then be conducted between Feb 8 and 9, 2022, and the Royal Malaysian Police responded on March 8, 2022, when they requested to enter Singapore in mid-to-late March,” it said.

Other assists

The Singapore police also highlighted other occasions where the country assisted Malaysia in its 1MDB-related cases, including the repatriation of misappropriated funds.

“We will continue to facilitate requests for assistance in accordance with Singapore’s legal framework,” it said.

Tawfiq (above), who is the husband of the former Bank Negara government Zeti Akhtar Aziz, is alleged to have received 1MDB-linked funds through Iron Rhapsody Ltd - a company that is allegedly beneficially owned by Tawfiq and one of his sons.

Iron Rhapsody is alleged to have transferred the 1MDB-linked funds to Cutting Edge Industries - which is also owned by Tawfiq and his sons Abdul Aziz and Aliff Ayman.

Last November, it was reported that US$15.4 million (RM64.9 million) linked to the accounts of Cutting Edge Industries had been repatriated from Singapore to Malaysia.

The police had been asked by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to conduct further investigations on the case, but on March 1, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told parliament that they were unable to do so because the Malaysia-Singapore border was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On March 4, Bukit Aman Commercial CID Department director Mohd Kamarudin Md Din reportedly said police have already contacted “the countries involved” to seek assistance with the case but have not received the desired response.

According to Bernama, he said police are waiting for the green light from the countries involved before proceeding to obtain statements from witnesses and related documents. The report did not mention the countries involved.

There has been renewed interest in Tawfiq’s link in the 1MDB scandal after former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner testified that his subordinate had informed him that Zeti's husband had been “bribed”.

However, he said he could not independently verify if a bribe was indeed paid, while Tawfiq said he had never received any bribe. - Mkini