Business as usual at Menara Ilham after MACC seizure

KUALA LUMPUR: It is business as usual at the Menara Ilham on Friday after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) seized the 60-storey building owned by the family of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.

The public and employees of the various companies located in the building were seen entering and exiting the building at the heart of the city as usual.

An employee of one of the companies housed in the building told The Star that tenants received an email from the building management regarding the seizure.

“However, they said operations would go on. Everything was as usual on Friday (Dec 22),” he said.

Another employee said he was initially worried after reading the news of the seizure on Thursday.

“My laptop was in the building and I was worried that I would not be able to go in,” he added.

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The MACC said it had seized the tower after it found an offence under the MACC Act 2009 had been committed.

The notice dated Dec 18 from the MACC was published on local media.

In May this year, MACC said it was gathering information involving alleged misappropriation of RM2.3bil by a former minister and businessman.

Sources said the probe was linked to the leak of the “Pandora Papers” by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJ).

The Pandora Papers refer to millions of leaked documents in 2021, which allegedly revealed offshore accounts of present and past leaders from around the world, including presidents, prime ministers, billionaires and prominent business people.

The tower was also where the Council of Eminent Persons, set up by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2018, used to meet.

Daim was the leader of the council, which also included former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz and billionaire Robert Kuok, among others.