Senior Customs Officers Nabbed For Graft Involving Billions of Ringgit

Two Senior Customs Officers Nabbed For Graft Involving Billions of Ringgit

By Lourdes Charles

KUALA LUMPUR: Two senior Customs officers have been arrested for alleged money laundering and corruption involving billions of ringgit in uncollected taxes.

The arrests came after a massive nationwide operation involving several government agencies.

A high-powered task force comprising officers from Bank Negara, the Inland Revenue Board, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney-General's Chambers conducted simultaneous raids throughout the country over the last 48 hours.

More than 400 MACC officers were involved in the operation that saw hundreds of documents being seized, according to a statement from the MACC Tuesday.

The documents belonged to forwarding agents in several ports in Kelang, Penang, Kuantan, Johor and Sabah.

The raiding team also seized several Customs computers besides freezing and seizing of hundreds of bank accounts belonging to agents and officers, the statement said.

Some 25 Customs offices nationwide and more than 120 forwarding companies and their holding companies were raided.

It is learnt that Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail is personally supervising the operation from the legal aspect as investigations are also being carried out under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

[ Via Star Online, Tuesday March 29, 2011 MYT 5:08:14 PM]