Thomas coordinated probe into Zeti’s husband in 2018, says MACC

The commission said its focus was on identifying and recovering the funds related to 1MDB.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has revealed that it was the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) that instructed the police to probe former central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s husband in 2018.

It said former attorney-general Tommy Thomas was the one who coordinated investigations between MACC and the police.

“MACC’s focus was on identifying and recovering the funds related to the 1MDB case, including a total of US$15.4 million involving the account of Zeti’s husband, Tawfiq Ayman, with Cutting Edge Industries Ltd,” it said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, the AGC instructed the police to focus on the criminal offence aspect in relation to the receipt of the money into Tawfiq’s account in Singapore, and the investigation is ongoing.”

Tawfiq Ayman.

MACC’s statement comes in the wake of questions over the graft busters’ decision to leave the investigation on Tawfiq to the police.

MACC said today the idea behind the coordination was to avoid duplication in the collection of evidence and testimony, and to better engage with Singapore’s authorities.

So, it said, there was no issue of failure of any enforcement agency to detect, investigate and prosecute any wrongdoing in such financial transactions “as raised by some parties”.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki had earlier said the agency was not investigating Tawfiq, whose company in Singapore is said to have received 1MDB-linked funds from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

Azam had told reporters on Tuesday that MACC was only tasked with repatriating 1MDB funds from Singapore and that the probe into Tawfiq was being handled by the police. - FMT