A group of Malaysians, including a senior official from the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), “former politician”, and a senior government official have been linked to a property scam in Australia surrounding the sale of an apartment block in Melbourne.
Australia’s The Age newspaper reported on its website today that the shady deal, which involved marking up the price of an apartment block near Melbourne’s Monash University, was instigated by local developers and was used by the Malaysians as a money laundering scheme.
The Malaysians, acting on behalf of MARA, allegedly “overbid” on the sale price of the apartment block, named Dudley International House, by a mark up of AUD4.75 milion (RM13.8 million). The building, assessed to be worth AUD17.8 million (RM51.33 million), was therefore bought for AUD22.5 million (RM65.3 million) instead.
To complete the scam, the Malaysian representatives then sent out fake invoices to several complicit Australian developers to the tune of the differential in the property price. Thus, the aberrant AUD 4.75 million was channeled back to the Malaysians’ pockets as kickbacks.
The Age illustrated the alleged illegal transactions in the infographic below:
The response from MARA in the wake of these allegations has been immediate … somewhat. In an SMS to The Star Online, MARA chairperson Tan Sri Annuar Musa stated that the federally-owned foundation, formed to assist and elevate Bumiputera students, will issue an official statement regarding the emergin scandal tomorrow.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, known for its audits into the long-delayed KLIA2 airport project and its more recent investigation into scandal-ridden sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has also announced that it would call MARA management to answer for the marked up purchase of Dudley International House.
“We will call them up as soon as possible, we will write to Mara,” said PAC chair Nur Jazlan Mohamed, as quoted by The Malaysian Insider.
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