MACC probing five banks over international scams - report

The MACC is investigating five major banks in the country for their supposed role in facilitating transactions of up to RM1 million a day of ill-gotten gains from scam victims, according to a report.

The report by New Straits Times says at least 20 bank employees were involved.

While it was the employees and not the bank itself that worked with international scam syndicates, the banks have come under the MACC’s scrutiny because of corporate liability.

Section 17A of the MACC Act 2009 stipulates that if a person associated with a business engages in corrupt practices to gain business or a business advantage, then the business itself is deemed liable and its directors could be fined, imprisoned, or both.

This is unless they can prove the offence occurred without their consent and they have exercised due diligence by putting adequate safeguards to prevent such practices.

Parliament passed the corporate liability clause in April 2018 and the MACC began enforcing it in June 2020.

The New Straits Times report claimed that the MACC investigation started after it learnt of the banks’ roles following its success in busting an investment scam ring as part of its Ops Tropicana.

The bank employees - which reportedly included auditors and frontline officers - supposedly helped syndicates bypass due diligence checks when opening accounts and turned a blind eye to transactions flagged as suspicious.

These accounts would then be used by scammers to collect money deposited by scam victims, which would then be moved to the syndicate’s accounts in Hong Kong. Most of the victims identified so far were from Australia and the UK.

“It is learnt the crooked bank employees had led to scammers reaping about RM200 million within just three months.

“In return, the bankers pocketed between RM1,000 to RM2,000 for each bank account that was successfully opened without any due diligence,” the report said.

The report said about 20 to 30 accounts had been set up and the scammers would close them and open new ones every three months.

It said the MACC has also identified seven or eight dummy companies used by the scammers to open the accounts and the companies were also used to promote bogus investment schemes. - Mkini