Nearly RM3bil of Felda funds used to buy political support, says Azmin

- Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat was told that some RM2.7bil of Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) money was used to buy political support before the last general election in May 2018.

Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali (pic), in tabling the White Paper on Felda in Parliament on Wednesday (April 10), said it was “corporate malfeasance” that led to Felda suffering massive losses.

He also alleged that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was implicated in “shady deals”.

“(Najib), who was known as MO1 and who was the finance minister at the time, was involved in the investment process.

“He gave orders to speed up transactions that were funded by the Finance Ministry.

“These actions were not only irresponsible but criminal in nature,” he claimed, drawing murmurs from lawmakers.

Azmin cited the purchase of Indonesian company Eagle High TBK from PT Rajawali Capital at a 96% higher market rate as an example of the abuse of Felda funds.

He added that as of March this year, the RM2.3bil investment is now worth only RM500mil.

On Tuesday (April 9), Felda director-general Datuk Dr Othman Omar lodged a police report claiming that Najib had pushed it into investing US$505mil (RM2.07bil) in Eagle High.

In the report, he said the amount paid to acquire a 37% stake in the Indonesian company was 344% more than its actual value of US$114mil (RM466.9mil).

Eagle High is part of the Rajawali Group owned by Peter Sondakh, who Othman claimed was close to Najib.

Meanwhile, Azmin added that Felda’s debts had drastically risen by 1,100% from RM1.2bil in 2007 to RM14.4bil by 2017.