Dudley House in  Melbourne
4 September 2020
Federal police have seized properties and cash worth US$1.2 million from Australian property developer Dennis Teen Boon Lye, his wife and their private companies. It was alleged that Mr Teen or his associates paid more than $3.4 million in bribes to former Malaysian politicians, government officials or their agents.
The ploy is to buy a property for the government at a highly inflated price and the difference between actual price and the inflated price goes into the pockets of the arrangers of the property purchase. The Malaysian government linked institutions have purchased a number of properties including a student accommodation block called Dudley House in Caulfield in Melbourne. Actual price of Dudley House was $13 million. But MARA bought this at a price of $16.5 million. $3.4 million paid or promised to people, including individuals allegedly named Zach Zainal and Erwan Azizi, for influencing a Malaysian public official to secure the sale of the property.
The MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) is a Malaysian government agency. It was formed to aid, train, and guide Bumiputra (Malays and other indigenous Malaysians) in the areas of business and industry.   MARA chairperson Azizah Mohd Dun has said she will leave it to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate. Even if Anti-Corruption Commission investigates the scam, it is the responsibility of MARA to hold an internal investigation to see to what extent its own officers have contributed to the scam.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have obtained a leaked draft report by auditors Ernst and Young prepared for the Malaysian government which alleges multiple serving and former officials may have extracted bribes worth up to $23.5 million by laundering funds via a number of Australian property developments. It is surprising that the Malaysian authorities have not taken any action despite having the audit report.
Free Malaysia Today reported.
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