KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will look into whether to hold proceedings on Retirement Fund Incorporated’s (KWAP) investment in Indonesian startup eFishery, which allegedly committed planned fraud that cost the Malaysian Government around RM200mil.
PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said that while the issue was not in the PAC’s current proceedings agenda, the possible proceedings into the issue would be discussed by the committee.
“For now, it is not in the PAC’s proceedings plans but we might discuss it later to see whether PAC needs or does not need to include it in (future proceedings).
“For now we already have many proceedings that are waiting for us to complete so maybe we will discuss the matter at a later date before making a decision,” she said at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (July 16).
KWAP is reported to have invested US$47.7mil (about RM200mil) into eFishery during July 2023.
In a parliamentary written reply dated Wednesday (July 15), the Finance Ministry alleged that eFishery had conducted a deliberately well-planned fraud on KWAP and its other investors.
The ministry said the startup had managed to manipulate and falsify its financial reports despite due diligence by KWAP and other investors.
Founded in 2013, eFishery was initially promoted as a potentially revolutionary technology-driven aquaculture company that could modernise the fish and shrimp farming industry.
However in December 2024, a whistleblower report broke headlines that the company had faked its financial status, misreporting losses as profits and significantly inflating its revenue figures.
In April, eFishery co-founder Gibran Huzaifah was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment by a court in Bandung, Indonesia, after being convicted of criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
