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Friday, July 24, 2015

In 1MDB-linked case, Jerome Lee freed on RM100,000 bail

A top company director has been freed on a RM100,000 bail today, four days after he was the first person arrested and remanded in the ongoing investigations linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd and its one-time subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
The Putrajaya magistrate's court released Jerome Lee (pic) on bail with two guarantors.
Jerome’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) did not ask for extension of the remand and Magistrate Nik Isfahanie Tasnim Wan Ab Rahman set the bail at RM100,000.
The 39-year-old is group executive director of construction firm Putrajaya Perdana Berhad but had been previously employed as an investment director with 1MDB.
Lee was arrested on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before boarding a flight to Taiwan, as part of the probe into the controversial state investment vehicle under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act for receiving bribes.
On Tuesday, police obtained a four-day remand order to hold him for further investigations.
Sources among the investigating team told The Malaysian Insider that one of Lee's companies had dealings with SRC International Sdn Bhd, a Finance Ministry-owned entity that was previously a 1MDB subsidiary.
Other checks showed that Lee was also group executive director of Putrajaya Perdana Berhad, the property company involved in developing the federal administrative capital, Putrajaya.
It is also learned that Lee had had a stint at 1MDB in 2011.
Shafee today said he was perplexed as to why Lee was arrested, especially since he had not been involved in 1MDB for long, adding that even the deputy public prosecutor (DPP) and the magistrate could not give an answer.
"The DPP said they do not know if he's an accused or witness or what.  I pressed for what is the ground for his arrest but the magistrate could not tell me and refused to tell me ," he said, adding that Section 17 (a) was not a ground for arrest.
"So until today, we do not know the facts of the case that constituted his arrest. But now that he's (Lee) been interviewed, he's got some sort of an idea why."
Shafee noted that Lee had not been involved with 1MDB for long.
Lee, who was also present at the court today, covered his face with a jacket as he exited the courtroom and refused to speak to reporters.
Following Lee's arrest, Datuk Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman of Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd was also picked up by MACC on Tuesday.
Shamsul was detained at The Curve shopping mall in Mutiara Damansara, and was brought to the headquarters of the anti-graft authority for questioning, where he was arrested.
Shamsul was remanded for five days on Wednesday.
SRC International and Ihsan Perdana are allegedly part of the US$11.1 million (RM42 million) money trail that ended in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal bank accounts between December 2014 and February this year.
The trail, as reported by The Wall Street Journal based on documents sourced from Malaysian investigators, began with RM50 million in SRC International, which then moved to another company Gandingan Mentari, and then to Ihsan Perdana.
From Ihsan Perdana, RM42 million was allegedly transferred to Najib's accounts at AmBank. The prime minister had denied taking 1MDB funds for personal use, but has not commented directly on the fund transfers.
It was also reported that the prime minister's accounts at AmBank have since been closed.
On July 8, the special task force also announced that two of the six bank accounts it had frozen as part of investigations belonged to SRC International and Ihsan Perdana.
The RM42 million that flowed through these two companies are part of a larger amount of some US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) that allegedly ended up in Najib's accounts.
The largest potion, US$681 million, was funnelled separately in March 2013 from overseas, from Tanore Finance, a company in the British Virgin Islands, through Falcon Private Bank in Singapore.
- TMI

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