KUCHING, Feb 6 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has not set a time-frame on when it will complete its investigation into former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.
Its chief Tan Sri Azam Baki said the investigations that were initiated based on allegations about Daim’s sources of wealth as leaked in the Pandora Papers were said to have been committed a long time ago and involved many countries and many witnesses.
“We will try our best to get all the evidence, including from overseas, and this is one of the challenges that we are facing,” he told reporters here today.
He said the evidence-gathering included getting documentation and statements from witnesses, but added that there was the possibility that many of them have since died.
He said the big challenge is getting the cooperation from agencies from other countries such as the Cayman Islands to secure evidence.
Azam said the investigations into the allegations also involved other Malaysian institutions, such as Bank Negara.
On January 29, Daim was charged in the Sessions Court with failing to declare his assets to the MACC. He pled not guilty.
The MACC began investigating the 86-year-old tycoon last year, attributing it to information obtained from the Pandora Papers that was first leaked and exposed in 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that identified Daim as among several high profile Malaysians with links to offshore tax havens preferred by the rich and powerful.
Several other information leaks since then have linked Daim and his family to offshore business entities and trusts worth at least £25 million (about RM141 million).
Daim’s sons, Muhammed Amir Zainuddin Daim and Muhammed Amin Zainuddin Daim were reportedly named owners of a British Virgin Islands firm Newton Invest & Finance Limited in 2007 when they were nine and 12 respectively.
By 2017, when the brothers were in their early 20s, they were owners of several offshore firms set up in tax havens, including Splendid International Ltd (BVI) which held London properties worth £12 million (about RM65 million at 2017 exchange rates).
Besides the two BVI firms, the brothers and their mother are also shareholders in several other offshore companies which hold properties in London.
