Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Photo: AFP/VNA)Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – The Malaysian Anti-CorruptionCommission (MACC) on October 18 arrested former Deputy Prime Minister AhmadZahid Hamidi in an investigation into suspected misappropriation of funds froma charity foundation.
Ahmad Zahid, who is now President of the opposition United MalaysNational Organisation (UMNO), was detained after he presented himself at theMACC headquarters for the charges of “abuse of power, breach of trust, andmoney laundering".
He will be brought to a Kuala Lumpur court on October 19 to face severalcharges under anti-corruption and money laundering laws, the MACC said.
It gave no further details but local media reported that he was accusedof misappropriating 800,000 ringgit (over 190,000 USD) from a foundation hechairs to settle credit card payments for himself and his wife in 2014 and2015.
Ahmad Zahid has denied wrongdoing. He said the payments were made in errorby an aide and that he has since repaid the amount.
He is the latest former high-ranking official to be arrested oversuspected graft since the election in May.
Former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, face multiple chargesin connection with a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MalaysiaDevelopment Berhad (1MDB).
Najib has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to 32 criminalcharges involving more than 2.3 billion ringgit (553.6 million USD) allegedlysiphoned from 1MDB. Meanwhile, Rosmah has pleaded not guilty to 17money-laundering offences.
In June, the MACC said it had frozen several accounts linked to UMNO aspart of their investigations into 1MDB.
Najib founded the 1MDB investment fund in 2009, supposedly to serveMalaysia’s development through global partnerships and foreign directinvestment.
However, it became the centre of a money laundering scandal, allegedlycausing losses of up to 3.7 billion USD and leading to probes into thefinancial markets in several countries such as the US, Switzerland, Singapore,Malaysia and China.
US authorities said more than 4.5 billion USD was misappropriated from1MDB, and nearly 700 million USD from the fund was diverted into Najib'spersonal bank accounts.
From the raids on several of Najib’s properties in Kuala Lumpur, policeseized valuables worth up to 273 million USD.
Najib will go on trial on February 12, 2019. The trial will run fromFebruary 12 to March 29, 2019. If convicted, he will face multi-year prisonsentences.-VNA
VNA
