PETALING JAYA: Fifteen of the 17 company directors who were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in connection with an investigation into the misappropriation of funds of the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) on Monday were remanded between two days and a week from yesterday.
The 15 suspects including a woman, aged between 24 and 68, were held in various locations in the Klang Valley in a massive operation by the MACC.
They were taken to the Putrajaya magistrate’s court yesterday, where the remand order was issued by magistrate Shah Wira Abdul Halim. Two of the suspects were freed on a RM8,000 bail each.
MACC chief Comm Datuk Seri Azam Baki confirmed the arrests. Sources revealed that a large portion, amounting to millions of ringgit, of the RM100 million allocated for socio-economic and skill-enhancing programmes for the Indian community were diverted for personal gain.
It is learnt that investigators estimated almost 60% of the grants that were disbursed to companies, foundations and individuals for the Mitra programmes had failed to reach the targeted groups, especially those in the B40 category.
“The grants were swindled by certain individuals who had applied for it. They neither conducted any programmes nor were they able to produce proof of the expenditure. The MACC’s investigations will involve scrutinising the applications approved for Mitra and how they were utilised since 2018,” the sources said.
