PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli today said the transaction integrity of the new document linked to the controversial purchase of the MARA property had been untrustworthy.

The integrity of the transactions made by MARA subsidiary, MARA Inc and the subsidiary's company structure makes way for people to circumvent it for money laundering, said Rafizi.

“Anyone who looked through the matter carefully would ask the question: why do you have to redirect to Singapore involving of allegations of kickbacks paid to a Singaporean company?

“Even it was made through the so-called government procedures you can't help but wonder if it did happen.

“Was the government procedures were inadequate that no way it could be detected in the system where alleged elements of embezzlement were involved in the dealing,” he told reporters at the National Oversight & Whistleblowers (NOW) Centre in Sungai Besi, here today.
"My main question is why was British Virgin Island (BVI), an offshore company such as British Virgin was employed in the dealing when it’s actually a government transaction?”

Rafizi Ramli
National Oversight & Whistleblowers' (NOW) executive director and also PKR vice-president, Rafizi Ramli together with reporters shedding the light on the MARA property investment scandal. -Astro AWANI/Sathesh Raj

Rafizi also regards the company as a mafia-type organisation and that its operational details were protected and unavailable to public.

The issues of transparency and accountability, he added, are at stake.

READ: Property purchase in Melbourne according to procedures - Mohd Shafie

"Why do you buy a government property and keep it a secret, a government's property is meant to be published and we should know about it.

“Even if they were thinking big about investing in Australia, why can't they have just one Australian company to make the purchase. Why do they have to go to BVI and other companies registered in different countries to dissect the ownership of the property from MARA Inc?

"Why can't MARA Inc and Australia Pty hold all these properties?

Rafizi also stressed that if the government procedures are adequate, someone should be held accountable if something really went wrong, he said.

He added that if government procedures had allowed this to happen, the inadequacy of government procedures that has circumvented for the problem to occur is questionable.

National Oversight and Whistleblowers Centre
Rafizi Ramli said based on the document received, National Oversight & Whistleblowers ( NOW ) will reveal more about the inadequacies in the MARA property purchase by MARA Inc. Astro AWANI / Sathesh Raj

The new document revealed that said MARA officials including Tan Sri Anuar Musa was present in Melbourne, Australia and that he should know about what's happening.

Rafizi also added that since Anuar was present during the visit with Datuk Lan Alani and that he was given the information since 2014, he should have observed the MARA Inc. property holding structures and direct investigations earlier and not wait for the Australian media to highlight the issue.

READ: MARA: Melbourne property purchased based on valuation report - Abdul Halim

READ: ACAB confident of transparent investigation into Melbourne purchase

The document revealed MARA Inc companies' holding structure.

It showed that apart from Dudley International House, MARA Inc owns three other properties - 746 Swanston Street, 333 Exhibition Street and 51 Queen Street.

Recently, Australian newspaper, The Age, reported that a top MARA officer, senior official and former politician had allegedly spent millions in government funds to buy an apartment block in Melbourne in a property scam.

The report also revealed that "a group of super-rich Malaysian officials" had overpaid by AUS$4.75 million (RM13.8 million) for the apartment block in the city in 2013.

The trio had allegedly "overbid" for the building, called Dudley International House, from AUS$17.8 million to A$22.5 million (RM65.3 million), with the difference pocketed as bribes back home.