ALOR STAR: A chief executive officer of a state Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) and a female company director were detained to assist investigations into alleged corruption and abuse of power in the mining sector, involving bribes exceeding RM13 million.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was granted a three-day remand order against the duo starting today by Magistrate Wan Shahida Abd Rahim at the Alor Star magistrate's court and Magistrate Norsyakirah Che Hashim at the Shah Alam magistrate's court today.
According to sources, the suspects, aged 63 and 40 respectively, were arrested separately in Alor Star and Kuala Lumpur late yesterday.
The sources claimed the mining activities were carried out illegally by the company which allegedly received protection from certain authorities since 2020.
"In the course of the investigations, we were able to detect several payments suspected to have elements of bribery amounting to more than RM13 million being paid by the company to protect the illegal mining activity between 2020 to 2023.
It was learnt that the company, owned by the female director, was granted approval to carry out timber rubber clone planting for a forest farming project involving two compartments in Kedah in 2016.
The sources said in 2020, the same company submitted an application to the Kedah government to carry out rare earth element (REE) mining activities in the same compartments.
However, the state government has not issued any approval pertaining to the company's application to carry out the mining activity.
Meanwhile, MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirmed the arrest and said the case was investigated under Sections 17 and 23 of the MACC Act 2009.