PUTRAJAYA: Graft investigators will call the rest of those named in the two-year-old Pandora Papers scandal after it summoned a former finance minister to explain allegations in the report.
Sources with knowledge of the case said investigators had only called up the former minister so far.
It is learnt that the 84-year-old individual had his statement recorded on Monday.
“For now, investigators are looking into the case involving this individual.
“The rest will be called up as well if the situation warrants it,” a source told The Star.
The same source pointed out that other agencies, including the police, have also initiated a probe into the Pandora Papers.
“There is a possibility that the others have been called for their statements by other agencies investigating the claims,” said the source.
Back in 2021, police had opened several investigations over the Pandora Papers, but the status of the investigations had not been made known.
The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that exposed the secret offshore accounts involving former and current governments and political leaders worldwide, including Malaysia.
The names of several Malaysians, including politicians, were cited in the papers.
Sources said that graft investigators had summoned the former minister to get his explanation on claims of a money trail to 12 offshore companies believed to be owned by him and his family.
It is learnt that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is also attempting to trace overseas assets and investments linked to the former minister and his family.
Sources also said that no accounts had been frozen – for now.
“They will seek for accounts to be frozen if necessary. But for now, they have not done so as the investigation is still in its early stages,” the source said.
In 2021, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, then Opposition Leader, raised a motion to debate the Pandora Papers.
The motion was rejected.
The then prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said that enforcement authorities were free to act based on claims made in the Pandora Papers and that the government would not interfere with or stop the authorities from pursuing any case based on the information in the papers.