Sources: 'Datuk Seri' to be charged over Penang tunnel project involving RM19mil funds

PUTRAJAYA: A businessman will be charged on Wednesday (April 3) with receiving money amounting to RM19mil, believed to be payment to help cover investigations into the RM6.3bil Penang undersea tunnel project.

Sources said that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had received the go-ahead to charge the 38-year-old suspect from the Attorney General's Chambers on Tuesday (April 2).

The man, a Datuk Seri, was arrested by the MACC in February last year for accepting the money from the project's main contractor after he claimed that he could help them "settle" with the Commission.

Sources said the company had paid the man RM19mil in stages between July and August 2017.

"The first payment of RM2mil was believed to have been paid in July 2017 while the second payment of RM15mil was made later in the same month," said a source.

The balance RM2mil was believed to have been paid in August the same year.

MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki confirmed that the man would be charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court.