Are Dr M and his sons still untouchable by the law?

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For image info, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7PP0Wzf6Ck ([KINI EXPLAINER] How rich are Dr M's sons? Wealth, controversies during ex-PM tenure

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Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s two sons - Mirzan and Mokhzani - are currently being investigated under the MACC Act 2009 and the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorist Financing and Proceeds from Illegal Activities Act 2001. During their father's tenure as Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister, Mirzan and Mokhzani found themselves entangled in various business controversies. Questions arose on whether their business empires were established solely on merit or if they secured government contracts due to their father's influence. In another episode of Kini Explainer, let's explore the considerable wealth amassed by Dr Mahathir's two sons and examine the controversies they faced during their father's administration.

Are Dr M and his sons still untouchable by the law?

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15, 2025: Singapore’s international cable news network, Channel News Asia (CNA), has reported that the racist Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Dr M)’s sons are next on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)’s list of targets on high-profile corporate bailouts of Dr M’s era.

Many will just take such reports with a pinch of salt as Dr M is generally seen as untouchable by the law.

However, the news is coming from a reputableinternational  cable news network, and for it to run such a news, there must be some basis from a reliable source.

Whatever, if that happens, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani Unity Government (UG)’s reputation as a “reformist” against corruption will soar high.

No News Is Bad News reproduces below the CNA report as reposted by The Coverage:

News

Mirzan & Mokhzhani Next On The List – MACC’s Targeting High-Profile Corporate Bailouts Of Mahathir Era Mirzan & Mokhzhani Next On The List

15 March, 2025

 

Malaysia’s widening anti-graft probe of prominent personalities, including former finance minister Daim Zainuddin and two sons of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, has shifted focus to several controversial state-sponsored bailouts of businessmen politically connected to the two leaders around the 1997 financial crisis.

Government officials told CNA that top of the list includes the controversial RM836 million (US$176 million) takeover by state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) of the debt-laden shipping assets controlled by Dr Mahathir’s eldest son, Mirzan Mahathir, in March 1998.

Another is the RM1.79 billion bailout in early 2000 of businessman Tajudin Ramli, who at the time owned a controlling stake in the country’s troubled national carrier Malaysian Airline System (MAS).

The probe into the Petronas bailout of Konsortium Perkapalan Bhd, a shipping concern which was 51 per cent-owned by Mr Mirzan, could pose problems for Dr Mahathir. 

That’s because Petronas reports directly to the prime minister, a position held by Dr Mahathir at the time, and under the oil corporation’s charter, all its acquisitions, proposed investments and also divestments must receive the approval of the prime minister and its board of directors.

Senior government officials involved in the ongoing probe told CNA that investigators from the MACC are trying to determine the role Dr Mahathir played, if any, in the transaction. 

They also noted that top officials from Petronas, including members of its board of directors, who served at the national oil corporation at the time will be interviewed in the coming days as part of the ongoing investigation.

Separately, the probe into the government takeover of MAS is connected to the MACC’s ongoing investigations into the financial affairs of former finance minister Daim, who was charged in court in late January for failing to comply with a notice from the agency to declare his assets.

The MACC investigators are reviewing the circumstances behind the government’s decision to pay a huge premium for the 29 per cent equity interest Mr Tajudin controlled in the troubled airline.

The deal was widely seen as a bailout of the businessman, who was struggling to restructure his personal debt load that was estimated at just above RM1 billion at the time. 

DIALLING BACK

The review of the MAS bailout and the financial lifeline extended by Petronas to rescue Mr Mirzan’s shipping assets are not the only Mahathir-era deals on the MACC’s radar.

The anti-graft agency is also probing a separate corporate exercise involving the now-defunct Singapore-based trading platform called the Central Limit Order Book, or CLOB, and the takeover of a large conglomerate called Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB) in the late 1990s. 

The probe into these two corporate workouts, which are said to be connected to Singapore businessman Akbar Khan, are directly linked to the investigation into Daim’s affairs, MACC officials noted. 

MACC investigators told CNA that the ongoing graft probe, which involves the dialling back to the Mahathir-era bailouts, is presenting the agency with a number of hurdles, such as the sourcing of documents from more than 20 years ago and locating individuals who could assist in the investigations.

The MACC officials also acknowledged that the anti-graft body, which was formed in early 2009 to replace its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency, lacks the personnel with the historical context over cases now under review because many have either retired or passed on. 

“Because of these problems, the agency is taking other approaches, such as to compel those under investigation to declare their assets,” said a senior MACC official.

ASSET DECLARATIONS

Lawyers familiar with the workings of the MACC noted that asset declarations allow anti-graft investigators to conduct a “net worth and source of funds”  analysis on persons of interest to the agency, which in turn could help determine how the wealth was accumulated.

Shortly after charging Daim and his wife Na’imah Abdul Khalid in a Malaysian court in late January for failing to declare their assets involving 38 companies, 25 properties and several luxury vehicles, the MACC slapped demands on Mr Mirzan and his younger brother, businessman Mokhzani Mahathir, to account for their business holdings and assets. 

Dr Mahathir’s two children have received extensions until sometime later this month to make the declarations.

While the anti-graft crackdown on high-profile individuals by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration has attracted widespread public attention, MACC officials and lawyers noted that the framing of firm corruption charges is unlikely to take place anytime soon.

“It is a lengthy and cumbersome process for both the accused and the (MACC) investigators because there will be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in cases like this,” said one lawyer involved in the ongoing anti-graft crackdown, who declined to be named.

Still, the ongoing anti-graft campaign is expected to stir public debate and lift the lid on the controversial corporate bailouts during the regional financial crisis of the late 1990s that had become a source of serious friction between Dr Mahathir and Mr Anwar, who at the time was his No. 2.

While Dr Mahathir was bent on using state funds to protect troubled businessmen that his government had entrusted to take on quasi-official projects under the country’s privatisation programme, Mr Anwar, who was finance minister at the time, favoured a more free-market approach to deal with the country’s economic woes and advocated a policy of high interest rates to attract foreign funds to prop up the Malaysian currency, the ringgit, that had sharply fallen in value. 

But the high interest rates choked economic activity and, more importantly, became a direct threat to Dr Mahathir’s economic model because it made it difficult for the well-connected political business groups to service their debts and finance big-ticket infrastructure projects. 

The bailout by state oil corporate Petronas of Mr Mirzan’s Konsortium Perkapalan was the first among a series of controversial corporate deals that sowed the seeds for the Mahathir-Anwar policy face-off that later morphed into a full-blown political battle that lingers to this day.

SOURCE OF FRICTION

Posting on social media in recent weeks, Dr Mahathir accused Mr Anwar of politically victimising his family and alleged that the ongoing MACC probe, which stems from disclosures in the Pandora Papers, were selective. The Pandora Papers are leaked documents that exposed the holdings of global politicians and other wealthy personalities in offshore tax havens.

He named several other individuals, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who is the Investment, Trade and Industry Minister, who were cited in the leaked documents and yet are not facing any publicly known probe.

“But instead, my son (Mirzan) was threatened that if he does not take action that the prosecutors consider contrary to the allegations levelled against him, he will be imprisoned for five years. There was no mention that he will be brought to court,” Dr Mahathir said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Mr Anwar, who is being sued for defamation by Dr Mahathir, has accused his former boss of enriching members of his family and close business associates by awarding them lucrative government contracts.

The premier has also insisted in his responses in the defamation suit that Dr Mahathir had abused his position as premier to direct Petronas to take over the shipping assets belonging to Mr Mirzan despite his objections to the deal. 

While the probe into the government’s bailout of Mr Mirzan’s shipping assets is in its initial stages, the MACC investigation into Daim’s financial affairs has advanced beyond the review of his family’s financial holdings and into high-profile corporate transactions the former finance minister is believed to have supervised and personally approved.

Government officials familiar with the ongoing anti-graft probe told CNA that the MACC has taken a statement from Mr Tajudin, the businessman who previously controlled national carrier MAS. 

The government officials noted that the MACC is investigating whether there were elements of corruption in the controversial January 2000 deal when Daim, who was finance minister at the time, convinced the government to pay Mr Tajudin RM1.79 billion for his controlling stake, or RM8 per share, at a time when the national carrier’s stock was trading at RM3.08 a piece, valuing the holdings at roughly RM718 million.

CNA understands that MACC is still trying to contact Singapore businessman Mr Akbar, who agency officials say is currently in Singapore. He played a key role in the transaction involving the frozen shares of Malaysian entities that were at one time listed on the Singapore-based trading platform called CLOB.

Mr Akbar not only won a lucrative concession awarded by the Malaysian finance ministry to operate a lucrative concession to manage the return of the frozen equities that were estimated to be roughly US$4 billion.

He also secured the blessing of Daim to take over conglomerate MPHB, which held stakes in banking, property, gaming and shipping.

The rights to manage the frozen shares were believed to have paved the way for Mr Akhbar to engineer the takeover of several listed companies, including MPHB, and profit handsomely from brokering the sale of other entities to businessmen close to Daim.

Source : Channel News Asia