Press Statement by Member of Parliament for Seputeh, Teresa Kok on 6 August 2020.

Walk the talk, Mr Prime Minister!

MACC should start probe immediately now that Australia has charged a suspect who has named 2 Malaysian “middlemen” in the Mara building scandal allegedly involving a Malaysian public official.

1. Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald reported that on July 9, the Australian police in Melbourne have charged a man named Boon Lye Teen with bribing Malaysian officials in the sale of a multi-million-dollar apartment complex in Melbourne to Mara Incorporated Sdn Bhd.  Teen was also charged with four counts of false accounts related to the sale of Dudley House in Melbourne in 2013. 
2. The charges come five years after an investigation by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald which reported the price of the property had been inflated by AUD4.75 million (RM14.25 million) to provide kickbacks to a group of Malaysian officials. 
3. According to the court documents filed at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, it was alleged that the agreed sale price for the property was AUD 17.85 million (RM 53.55 million) but it was later sold for AUD 22.6 million (RM 67.8 million), with USD 4.75 million (RM14.25 million) paid to Malaysian officials. 
4. The charging of Teen has now put the MACC and Malaysian government in the spotlight. Malaysians are now watching closely whether the MACC and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) will take action on the Malaysian officials involved in this corruption case. 
5. The MACC should take the cue from the Australian investigators which has named the two “middlemen” known as Zach Zainal and Erwan Azizi as receiving or being promised to receive the RM14.25 million as bribe to influence a Malaysian public official in order to obtain or retain business namely in the sale of a residential apartment complex. It will not be hard for the Malaysian authorities to track these two middlemen.
6. On 18 March 2016, it was reported that the then chairman of MARA Annuar Musa has delivered documents related to the purchase to the  MACC.   
7. On 30 November 2017, the then Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was reported to have said MACC is almost done with the Mara property scandal probe, and MACC was waiting for a report from the Australian authorities regarding the transactions.
8. However, 4 years later MACC has not taken any action on the Malaysian officials named in the transaction of the said property in Australia. The action taken by the Australian police on Boon Lye Teen will certainly raise eye-brows here on whether the MACC and AGC Malaysia will take similar action on the Malaysian officials who were involved in the case. 
9. As the PM of Perikatan Nasional has repeatedly said the PN government is serious in wiping out corruption in the country, it is high time for the PN government to walk the talk by taking action against the Malaysian officials involved in the property scandal which was first exposed in 2015. 
10. It will be a shame to the Malaysian government and the people if it is not seen to be doing anything on this case. 

Teresa Kok, 
Member of Parliament for Seputeh.