KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested four men for the alleged misappropriation of RM596 million involving a sukuk agreement.
The Star reported that the project in question was related to the registration, hiring and recording of foreign workers’ data at a ministry in which the four men arrested were said to be directly involved with developing the system.
The four, aged between 40 and 55, were arrested yesterday and three of them have been remanded until March 17 while the other was released on bail.
Sources told the English daily that the account was managed by a local bank where all the expenses and revenue were sent to a special account.
“However, the special account was then changed to another account which investigators believe was purposely created early last year.
“Graft investigators suspect that the account was to avoid paying all principals as well as profits to the sukuk holders.
“We believe the opening of another account had resulted in losses amounting to millions of ringgit to the sukuk holders,” sources close to the investigation told The Star
The sukuk was expected to reach maturity in May this year while the concession agreement was from July 2011 for a period of 12 years.
A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, that complies with Islamic religious law commonly known as Shariah.
The issuer of a sukuk essentially sells an investor group a certificate and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset that the investor group has direct partial ownership interest in.
The issuer must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.
