NETWORK School founder, Balaji Srinivasan, announced that all of his company's new investment plans in Malaysia have been postponed until they receive guarantees following the controversy after an anonymous social media account accused the company of protecting illegal immigrants (PATI).
Describing the allegations as baseless, Balaji, through a post on the X platform, said several fellow investors and executives of international technology companies that he brought to Forest City, Johor, are now taking a similar approach by postponing their respective investment plans.
According to him, the decision was made until his party received guarantees that such incidents would not be repeated and no longer affect foreign investors' confidence in Malaysia.
"A day before the Johor State Election on July 11, an anonymous social media account (MP4P) uploaded a post on Instagram falsely accusing Network School of harbouring illegal immigrants.
"The sensational accusation caused a stir in Malaysia until the authorities came to our campus on July 14 to investigate," he said.
According to him, after inspecting hundreds of physical passports belonging to individuals from 40 countries, including dual nationals, the authorities confirmed to the media on July 15 that all travel documents were valid.
"Throughout the process, we have been fully cooperative. You can see pictures of men, women and children at Network School smiling while holding their passports in broad daylight. Our faces are clear, and our identities are public knowledge.
"We have nothing to hide," Balaji stressed.
He believes the investigation process conducted by Malaysian authorities has itself affected the company's reputation and investor confidence, even though the allegations were ultimately not true.
"In a situation like this, the process itself has become a form of punishment. "What MP4P is doing is very similar to the crime known in the United States as 'swatting, which is making false reports of serious threats that force the police to waste time investigating something that does not actually exist, thus diverting attention from the task of protecting the people," he said.
Earlier, allegations went viral that there were Israelis participating in a program known as Network School in Forest City, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.
This also caught the attention of Johor Menteri Besar, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who ordered an investigation into the allegations that Israelis, who are banned from entering Malaysia, were part of the Network School community and allegedly entered the country using a second passport.
Following that, the Immigration Department conducted checks on 266 foreigners from 40 countries and found that all individuals checked had valid immigration documents based on current records.
In the same post, Balaji informed that Network School has invested over RM100 million to develop a startup-friendly campus in Forest City without receiving any funds from the Malaysian government.
According to him, the investment not only creates job opportunities for locals, but also helps Malaysian startups, supports local businesses and contributes to efforts to revive the development of Forest City.
"The fact is, we have invested over RM100 million in Malaysia, creating jobs for dozens of Malaysians and our identity is known to the public.
"Our executives and staff in Malaysia should be trusted first rather than claims from anonymous social media accounts," he said.
In this regard, Balaji requested a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to discuss the possibility of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Network School and the Malaysian government.
The memorandum aims to strengthen cooperation between both parties and restore the global technology community's confidence in Malaysia as an investment destination.
"The details can be discussed later, but we will publicly promise to continue to comply with all Malaysian laws as we do now and respect Malaysia's sovereignty, something we have never questioned.
"In return, the government will have the opportunity to get to know our community better and understand that we chose Malaysia because we believe this country is the best place to build a technology hub that finds engineers from developing countries, investors from the West and local Malaysian entrepreneurs to build innovation and generate economic growth worth millions of dollars in the future.
"We are not asking for any funds. All we want is a meeting to help restore confidence that Malaysia remains a trusted investment destination.
"On the contrary, if Malaysia no longer wants our investments or those of our friends from billion-dollar funds and trillion-dollar companies, we will respect that decision and shift our capital to other countries," he added. – July 17, 2026
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