The man was also involved in two other commercial crime (cheating) cases.
KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested a 45-year-old businessman for allegedly attempting to bribe several senior officers believed to be involved in the investigation into the National Feedlot Corporation scandal.
The man, who owns a foreign worker agency, a taxi company and claims to be a Datuk, has been handed over to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), police said today.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director, Syed Ismail Syed Azizan, this afternoon confirmed the man’s arrest, but declined to comment on his link to the NFC probe despite repeated questions from reporters.
“No comment… You can guess yourselves, you already know his name without me telling you,” Syed Ismail said.
“We arrested the man yesterday at about 4pm at his office after receiving information that he attempted to bribe three or four of my senior officers,” he said.
He declined to reveal the reason for the attempted bribery or the amount as it is now with the MACC. However, it is believed to be in the millions.
Syed Ismail said the man was also involved in two other commercial crime (cheating) cases – one is Ipoh and another in Cheras, for which he was detained but released a couple of weeks ago.
Meanwhile, on the NFC case itself, Syed Ismail said that a special task force is still working hard to “expedite” investigations.
He said that so far, 27 individuals have been questioned, including officers from the finance and agriculture and agro-based industry ministries.
“We will also be calling others who are related to the case who are yet to be questioned,” he said, declining to say if any ministers have been summoned.
‘A lot more to go’
On the progress (of the investigations), Syed Ismail said there is “still a lot more to go” as there are documents that police need to go through.Police are investigating the NFC under Sections 420 and 409 of the Penal Code for cheating and criminal breach of trust respectively and sections under the Companies Act.
Earlier today, MACC announced that it has set up a special task force, headed by the commission’s director of investigations, Mustafar Ali, to look into alleged corruption in the management of public funds for the NFC.
Later in the day, Mustafar confirmed that the police had handed over the 45-year-old suspect to the MACC for investigation.
NFC is run by Mohamed Salleh Ismail, the husband of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
The cattle project has been the target of attacks from the opposition, especially PKR, since the release of the Auditor-General’s 2010 report, which said the corporation was “in a mess”.
In the latest in its series of exposé, PKR said Shahrizat’s family owned a luxury condominium worth RM10 million in Singapore.
The party’s secretary-general, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said on Tuesday that the 2,282 sq ft unit at Anthony Road, Orchard Scotts, was purchased in January 2010, and was registered under the name of Mohamad Salleh, and their children. Mohamed Salleh is NFC’s executive chairman.
PKR accuses Shahrizat’s family of misappropriating the RM250 million of public funds meant for NFC.
In earlier revelations, it said large sums were used to purchase a luxury condominium in Bangsar and a luxury car. It also claimed that the beef that NFC produced was channelled to restaurants belonging to Shahrizat’s family.
Shahrizat, who heads Wanita Umno, denies that she has been involved in any wrongdoing. However, she faces growing calls to quit as minister, not only from the opposition parties, but from within Barisan Nasional and Umno as well.
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