Lawyer and aide held over FIC buy

PETALING JAYA: Two key players who helped ink the sale and purchase agreement of an overpriced hotel in London involving Felda Investment Corporation Sdn Bhd (FIC) have been nabbed.

This brings to five the number of people arrested in the ongoing probe into the purchase of the posh hotel in London’s upmarket Kensing­­ton area.

The duo are a lawyer, aged 44, and a 29-year-old woman, who is a legal assistant in the law firm based in Kuala Lumpur.

Both suspects were said to be involved in preparing the documents of the agreement between the original hotel owner and a third party, paving the way for the purchase by FIC.

Sources said both suspects were detained at about 4pm yesterday at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya.

They were summoned there for questioning, and will be remanded today to assist in the probe.

Confirming the arrests, MACC director of investigations Datuk Simi Abd Ghani said more suspects could be picked up.

It is learnt that the lawyer had links with the owners of a company which oversaw the transaction.

His assistant was also said to have played an active role in ensuring the deal was inked.

On Monday, former FIC chief executive officer Zaid Abdul Jalil was arrested after being questioned for almost 12 hours.

FIC acquired the four-star hotel, comprising 62 guest rooms and two three-bedroom serviced apartments, between 2013 and 2015 for £60mil (RM330mil), said to be at least £20mil (RM112mil) above its market value.

On July 21, two former key officials, aged 36 and 45, of a valuation firm were detained for their alleged involvement in manipulating the valuation price, resulting in FIC paying much higher than the actual value.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that the investigation papers on FIC’s purchase of two hotels in London and Kuching were 60% completed.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad said both investigations were being carried out aggressively, and involved the examination of seized documents and recording of statements from key witnesses.

“We have arrested several people, including company directors and a former special officer to Felda’s former chairman.

“We will try to resolve these cases as soon as possible,” he said during Media Prima TV Networks’ Soal Jawab programme on Wednesday night.

Dzulkifli said the investigation into the FIC purchase of the London hotel would take some time as it involved overseas transactions.

“This is because the information needs to be obtained from individuals in the United Kingdom.

“But we will try to resolve the Sarawak case first,” he said.

The Kuching hotel was believed to have been bought for between RM40mil and RM50mil above its actual value.