Press Statement
20th January 2022

Will the Prime Minister act on the expose by the Securities Commission of the devious conspiracy by Azam Baki to hide his unexplained wealth of shares and extraordinary volume and quantum of shares trading beyond his financial ability as a civil servant?

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri should stop the government’s dishonest attempt to cover up for Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki by shielding him from any punishment for Azam’s wrongdoings and lies. Ismail said the opposition should accept the decision by the Securities Commission (SC), which cleared Azam of any wrongdoing in his ownership of corporate shares.

DAP wishes to remind Ismail that the opposition will not accept decisions which are made wrongly and contrary to the law. When Azam expressed gratitude that SC had cleared him of wrongdoing for allowing his shares trading account to be used by his brother to acquire millions of shares in listed companies, this is clearly wrong because like any functional capital markets in the world Malaysia had also outlawed proxy share trading.

The opposition’s refusal to accept SC’s earlier decision has been proven correct with the latest clarification by SC that the “independent evidence” gathered at the inquiry showed that Azam is the named account holder and had sole control of the said trading account by giving instructions to buy, sell and transfer securities. SC concluded that there was no proxy trading of Azam’s shares account by his younger brother as claimed by Azam.

In other words Azam lied when he tried to justify his holdings of millions of ringgit of shares and share transactions involving millions and millions of ringgit by claiming that his share trading account was used as a proxy by his brother. The Azam scandal has now turned into a hydra of lies when one lie is exposed, more is required to cover up.

Clearly this is a devious conspiracy by Azam to hide his unexplained wealth of shares and extraordinary volume and quantum of shares trading beyond his financial ability as a civil servant. This is what the Prime Minister should focus upon to get to the bottom of the Azam shares shenanigans by seeking truth from facts instead of manipulating reality to hide criminal wrongdoing.

If the Prime Minister accepts the decision of SC that Azam lied when he claimed that his shares account was used by Azam’s brother as a proxy, then he should immediately take action by asking Azam to go on leave pending an independent and impartial investigation by a credible panel who can carry out their duties without fear or favour.

Lim Guan Eng
DAP Secretary-General
MP For Bagan