KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested another individual with a "Tan Sri" title over its probe into the MBI investment scam
The IGP secretariat's anti-money laundering division head Comm Datuk Muhammad Hasbullah Ali said the Tan Sri was among five suspects nabbed in a second round of arrests from April 18 to 21.
Among the five was another with a "Datuk Seri" title.
"They have been remanded between five to six days to assist investigations.
"Among the assets seized this round include durian plantations in Pahang, Penang and Kedah worth RM223,624,167.75. An additional 299 bank accounts worth RM123,614,594.35 were also frozen," he said, adding the assets seized are believed to have been purchased with or linked to the scheme's illegal gains.
"From the outside, the land purchase looked proper but it was purchased using illegal money," he said.
Investigations showed that the Tan Sri, a businessman, acted as a proxy for the scammers to the victims.
Comm Muhammad Hasbullah said no other influential figures were on their radar and most suspects were businessmen.
He added only six police reports had been lodged nationwide and that police have been investigating the case for seven to eight years.
"From the Interpol Red Notice, there were around 11 million victims from neighbouring countries.
On April 11, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said that eight suspects including those with Datuk titles had been arrested over the MBI investment scam.
Around RM3bill in assets, including hundreds of bank and shared accounts as well as property were seized in the first round of arrests.
Comm Muhammad Hasbullah said the first "Tan Sri" arrested was not directly involved in the syndicate but had duped a suspect into paying money to avoid being arrested.
"The deal was originally for RM25mill and the suspect paid RM10mill as deposit.
"When he was arrested he told police that he had paid money," he said, adding that the suspect then made a police report.
"We arrested that 'Tan Sri' and the money paid was also recovered," he said.
