Tengku Zafrul: I relinquished all posts in Kenanga Group in June 2010

PETALING JAYA: Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz says he relinquished all posts in Kenanga Group in June 2010 when he assumed the role of chief executive officer at Maybank Investment Bank Bhd.

The Finance Minister said in a statement Monday (Oct 4), that he wished to clarify that he was a group director and a member of the executive management committee of Kenanga Holdings Bhd from January 2009 to June 2010.

"In this role, I also held directorships in several subsidiaries or associated companies of the Kenanga Group, which included Capital Investment Bank (Labuan) Ltd," he said.

He added that he had taken steps to relinquish his roles in the Kenanga Group after being appointed CEO of Maybank Investment Bank.

Tengku Zafrul was responding to an article published by a news portal on the Pandora Papers expose, saying that he was seeking advice and further action from his legal team.

"Notwithstanding the fact that they had contacted my aide, who informed the portal that I had relinquished my directorships when I left Kenanga Group in June 2010, it appears that the publisher chose to proceed with the article by highlighting my name in a manner that suggests that Capital Investment (Labuan) Limited is still associated with me, instead of being part of the Kenanga Group.

"I have referred the matter to my lawyers for further advice and appropriate action," he said in the statement.

The Pandora Papers are a data leak, the largest of its kind, involving 2.94 terabytes of data provided anonymously to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Nearly 12 million documents and other records from 14 offshore service providers that set up and manage shell companies and trusts in tax havens around the world are contained in the data.