RM1.6mil in cash seized as MACC detains 5th suspect over Sabah railways issue

KOTA KINABALU: A 60-year-old contractor became the fifth person arrested in connection with the broadening Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) probe into the awarding of contracts for a number of Sabah railway projects.

Investigators also seized some RM1.6mil in cash from the house of the contractor as they moved to freeze his accounts, it was learned.

He was arrested when he turned up to give his statement at the Sabah MACC office here at 6pm on Saturday (Jan 27).

The suspect, the second contractor to be arrested along with three other engineers, was ordered to be remanded for five days by magistrate Cindy McJuce Balitus on Sunday (Jan 28), said his lawyer Batholomew Jingulam.

Four other suspects arrested on Tuesday (Jan 22) were also brought into court where MACC investigators obtained three-day extensions following the expiry of a seven-day remand order on Sunday (Jan 28).

The four suspects are a 58-year-old acting deputy director of a state department and also the chief engineer, two senior civil service engineers aged 37 and 39, and a 42-year-old contractor.

It was reported the MACC had frozen RM5.3mil in accounts in several banks in connection with the probe.

The source said caveats had also been obtained on several properties belonging to the suspects.

At least six to seven houses worth RM2.7mil were bought by the suspects and their families in Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Johor were identified, the sources said.

The sources said evidence suggested that the suspects made claims for emergency repairs on non-existent projects.

More witnesses are expected to be called in, along with the possibility of more arrests as graft-busters comb through seized and documents pertaining to projects between 2012 and 2017.