Guan Eng is upset SC cleared Azam Baki of criminal conduct
(FMT) – DAP’s Lim Guan Eng says that the Securities Commission Malaysia’s (SC) inability to determine if Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki had committed a securities offence was “upsetting”.
He said the laws are clear about proxy share trading, yet SC had yet to reveal if Azam’s brother was involved in purchasing the shares.
Lim said if the regulators cannot answer pertinent questions, then it should explain why three people were similarly fined millions of ringgit for a similar offence in the past.
“This is clearly double standard. Is SC going to return the fines they have paid and apologise for prosecuting them?”
Lim said SC’s response was against its legal duty as capital market regulators.
He said Azam had openly and publicly admitted that he had allowed his brother to conduct proxy share trading.
“Like every developed capital market in the world, proxy share trading is outlawed, as a trading account must be opened in the name of the beneficial owner or authorised nominee,” he said.
Lim said SC did not reveal if Azam’s brother Nasir had a share trading account, or if Nasir had to trade shares through a proxy, nor the source of funds used to purchase the shares.
Separately, PKR’s Wong Chen said SC’s findings were “strange” and could damage its reputation.
“The SC must now disclose in detail their reasonings or risk reputational damage.
“This Azam Baki share issue is a nightmare that keeps exposing how good governance is lacking in the entire Malaysian political system,” he said in a Facebook post.
Earlier, SC said it could not “conclusively establish” if Azam broke the law over his ownership of shares.
Azam is alleged to have bought millions of shares and warrants in public-listed companies with a value over the RM100,000 cap on equity holdings allowed for civil servants.
He has since explained that his brother, Nasir, had bought the shares using his account, which were then transferred to Nasir’s account shortly after.
