Phee’s accounts with RM2mil frozen for a few months

GEORGE TOWN: It will be a few more months before state exco member Phee Boon Poh can access his bank accounts again.

A source in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said the commission could freeze the four personal accounts for a few months.

“We have a set time. Maybe two to three months and after that, the accounts will be released,” he said yesterday.

Phee’s bank accounts, containing about RM2mil, were frozen before the weekend pending MACC investigations into an illegal carbon filter-processing factory in Sungai Lembu.

The source denied that the bank accounts of the factory owner or founders were frozen.

He said investigations were still going on and officers were still taking statements from relevant parties.

He said the MACC had not taken the statements of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Penanti assemblywoman Dr Norlela Ariffin, adding that Dr Norlela was still hospitalised.

Norlela had made several complaints about the factory, claiming the plumes of smoke it emitted had been the source of misery and health problems for villagers.

“We have conducted several raids on Phee’s houses in Butterworth, his office in Komtar, his service centre in Sungai Puyu and the Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) office in Bandar Perda,” he said.

On Aug 11, Phee, 66, who is the State Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman and Sungai Puyu assemblyman, was arrested. Factory owner Edmond Gan Eu Lee, 37, and his father Gan Buck Hee, 70, who started the factory about 30 years ago, were also detained.

They were released on Aug 14 after the Penang High Court set aside their remand orders.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed ruled that the five-day remand issued on Aug 12 contravened Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The MACC, however, intends to appeal the decision.

Phee is being investigated under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009 for allegedly writing two letters to MPSP, urging it not to take action against the illegal factory.