The anti-corruption watchdog is investigating Felda Investment Corporation (FIC) regarding its RM330 million purchase of a four-star hotel at Kensington in London three years ago, reported Free Malaysia Today.
“Based on preliminary information, FIC is believed to have bought the hotel at a price far exceeding the original price and this caused the company to sustain a loss of millions of ringgit,” said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
“A thorough investigation will be carried out to determine whether there was any element of corruption and abuse of power in the purchase process,” said MACC Chief Commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad, adding that they have created a team to look into the hotel purchase.
On Monday (17 July), seven MACC officials raided FIC’s office at Balai Felda in Jalan Gurney, Kuala Lumpur to get important information relating to the 2014 hotel transaction. They arrived at 10:20am and left at 5:45pm, carrying two suitcases and three boxes of documents.
The anti-corruption watchdog also plans to question several persons with knowledge of the hotel acquisition to help in the investigation.
According to FIC’s spokesperson Fathi Ahmad Shah, they are fully cooperating with the MACC so it can perform a thorough investigation.
“FIC is committed to supporting efforts by the relevant parties to enhance transparency, accountability, integrity and ethical business practices as key features of good corporate governance.”
Founded in July 2013, FIC is a unit of Felda that is mainly engaged in strategic investments such as hospitality assets and property development.
Earlier this year, Felda Chairman Shahrir Abdul Samad revealed that FIC’s board of directors were commanded to resign “to make it easier to implement reforms and reorganise the company”.
Image sourced from FMT
Radin Ghazali, Content Writer at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email radin@propertyguru.com.my
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