KUALA LUMPUR: Follow-up investigations into the MBI investment scam have led to the arrest of six new suspects including one with the title of Datuk Seri, and two Datuks.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Khalid Ismail, at a press conference on the matter in Bukit Aman Friday (Aug 22), said that the six were arrested between July 26 and Aug 15.
Of the six, the suspects with the titles were also found to have companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, with businesses in home development and telecommunications.
“It is believed that they (the Datuk Seri and Datuks) have acted as proxies and the large sums of money brought in were laundered by investing in other business such as plantation purchases. These monies will then be declared as profits for their companies,” he said.
A real estate business was also seized in the latest round of seizures, bringing the total number of businesses seized to nine.
A further 88 bank accounts worth RM10,538,160.96 and 398.8 million shares worth RM88,857,452 were also seized in the latest round of investigations.
“In total, the operation as a whole has seized and frozen around RM6.6bil in assets,” he said.
The IGP added that he believes investigations can be concluded by October this year with suspects being charged by then as well.
