UMNO president Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he is open to be investigated for any wrongdoing concerning an offshore account he had in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

“It happened when I was the CEO of a public-listed company,” the Bagan Datuk MP told the Dewan Rakyat today.

“The company I was heading had investments in a big country and had a concession for an IPP (independent power producer). The profits, however, could not be taken out but had to be reinvested in the country,” Zahid said.

He said that the company had wanted to pay dividends to its shareholders.

“But that registered company has since closed. As such, don’t speculate saying that I did this to evade taxes,” said former deputy prime minister.

The Umno chief was responding to RSN Rayer’s (Jelutong-PH) question on a company linked to him that had an account in BVI in the 1990s. 

Zahid’s name appeared in the Pandora Papers, an anonymous dump of 2.94 terabytes of confidential financial files to the Investigative Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). 

The dump is made up of more than 11.9 million documents and other records from 14 offshore service providers that set up and manage shell companies and trusts in tax havens around the globe.

According to Malaysiakini, which sighted the Pandora Papers, Zahid’s name emerged in the files of Algocal, who were agents of Breedon Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

Breedon was incorporated in September 1996 with Zahid and another person as directors. In November the same year, the company’s name was changed to Rising Resources (BVI) Limited.

In 1999, the company had a share capital of US$50,000, but the nature of the business was not revealed.

The documents from Algocal showed the company had been “struck off” for being dormant several years after incorporation. There is no indication of what the business was set up for, while companies with similar names registered in Malaysia are unrelated to Zahid.

Prior to joining politics, Zahid was one of the directors for Bank Simpanan Nasional and Pemodalan Nasional Bhd. He was also CEO for Kretam Holdings Bhd. – October 4, 2021.