KUALA LUMPUR – Former Mara Inc chairman Datuk Mohammad Lan Allani has been charged with 22 counts of corruption and money laundering amounting to RM20.5 million over property deals in Melbourne, Australia.
Lan, 65, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
He was charged in two sessions courts here and the charges were read out separately before judges Azura Alwi and Rozina Ayob.
He is charged with 17 counts of receiving bribes, three counts of attempting to receive bribes and two counts of money laundering, among others, for approving a proposal paper titled Proposed Acquisition of a Student Accommodation Building and a Commercial Retail Block known as Dudley International House, 7-13 Dudley Street, Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, Melbourne, Australia – between 2012 and 2013.
The charges are made under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (Amla) 2001.
The offences were allegedly committed at various locations, including Solaris Mont Kiara, Maybank Mont Kiara Branch, a restaurant in Bukit Kiara here and the CIMB Bank in Jalan Sagunting, Kota Kinabalu.
He was allowed bail of RM400,000 in one surety and ordered to surrender his passport to the court until the disposal of his case.
The courts fixed April 8 for mention of the case.
Lan was represented by lawyer Hisyam Teh while the prosecution was headed by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission announced that a “Datuk”, who was a former Mara Inc chairman, was arrested after being accused of pocketing RM33.45 million over a property deal in Australia.
It was reported that the inflated price was to provide kickbacks to Malaysian officials.
Last July, Australian authorities charged property developer Teen Boon Lye with bribing a Malaysian official to secure the sale of the property.
Australian investigators have identified two local individuals, by the name of Zach Zainal and Erwan Azi, as the middlemen who received the RM14.25 million as a bribe to influence a senior public official.
When the scandal was made public in 2015, Mara suspended Lan and the then Mara Inc CEO Abd Halim Rahim.
In November 2015, then rural and regional development minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced Lan and Halim were no longer with the agency.
Prior to Ismail Sabri, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal was rural and regional development minister from April 10, 2009 to July 29, 2015. – The Vibes, February 5, 2021
