PUTRAJAYA: Graft investigators have arrested three company owners, two of them Datuk, on the suspicion of giving bribes to civil servants so that action will not be taken against smuggling activities involving tobacco, cigarettes and liquor.
The three, who were in their 30s, were nabbed when they were summoned to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters at 11.30pm on Thursday (March 14) for their statements to be recorded.
"It is believed that the suspects had paid bribes to certain civil servants since 2018 until last year," a source said.
The same source said that their arrests followed a special ops which was carried out by the MACC, the Inland Revenue Board, and Bank Negara beginning Monday (March 11).
One of the suspects was remanded for three days until March 17.
The two Datuks were remanded for a day after Magistrate Khairunnisa Kasa allowed MACC’s application for all the suspects to be remanded.
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MACC anti-money laundering division chief Datuk Mohamad Zamri Zaindul Abidin confirmed the arrests.
Earlier this week, eight individuals, including five civil servants, were remanded in connection with the case, which was said to have caused an estimated leakage of RM400mil in tax revenue.
Four were remanded on March 12 for allegedly accepting bribes totalling RM5mil from a tobacco cigarette and liquor smuggling syndicate.
The next day, another four were remanded for allegedly acting on behalf of the syndicate to pay bribes so that the goods could be smuggled into the country.
The special ops that was carried out on Monday saw items including handphones, laptops, computers, cash, housing, and cars valued at almost RM6mil, seized.
MACC also froze 237 bank accounts involving RM12mil.
