PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was granted a six-day remand order against 10 individuals suspected to be part of an international investment scam syndicate, which raked in a whopping RM200 million from victims in Australia and the United Kingdom.
The seven men and three women arrived at the magistrate's court here at 2.23pm and were escorted to the courtroom by the Immigration Department's Special Tactical Team (Pastak) and MACC Anti-Money Laundering (AML) team.
Magistrate Mohd Dinie Shazwan Ab Shukor approved the remand order until Feb 27 for authorities to carry out their investigation.
The suspects were picked up in a covert operation, codenamed Op Tropicana, held simultaneously at 24 premises in Klang Valley and Penang.
MACC said the syndicate had bribed the authorities to enable their operations to continue unhindered since 2019.
The multi-agency operation involving 164 officers was conducted till late last night.
The syndicate reportedly lured victims to park money in non-existent investment portfolios.
It had set up 24 companies which were used to temporarily park money transferred by victims abroad, before the money was channelled to other bank accounts overseas and finally to the syndicates' accounts.
The case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009.