AZAM Baki opened, owned and operated his trading account and, therefore, he did not breach any rules, the Securities Commission said, disputing the anti-graft agency chief commissioner’s claim that his brother had used it.

A day after the regulator’s first statement that it was “not able to conclusively establish” if the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief had breached the law on the use of trading accounts, SC today said it wished to clarify its “independent evidence gathered at the inquiry” into Azam’s trading account.

It said the evidence showed that Azam “is the named account holder and had control of the said trading account” and that he “operated the account that he had opened, in that he had given instructions to buy, sell and transfer securities from the said account”.

“Therefore, the SC arrived at the decision that there was no breach of section 25(4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991,” it said in a statement.

Azam told the press on January 5 that it was his brother, Nasir, who had used his trading account to buy shares in 2015 and that the shares were later transferred to the brother, leaving him (Azam) with no pecuniary interest.

He also said he had informed his superiors at MACC of the purchases and they raised no concerns.

The purchases were 2.15 million shares in Excel Force MSC Bhd in 2015, 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Bhd the same year and 1.02 million shares the following year. At the time, Azam was MACC’s director of investigations.

Based on Azam’s explanation, MACC Anti-Corruption Advisory Board chairman Abu Zahar Ujang “cleared” the chief commissioner of wrongdoing despite calls for an independent, external investigation.

The next day, SC said it would be questioning Azam over potential breach of section 25(4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act, which stipulates that every securities account opened with a central depository must be in the name of the beneficial owner of the deposited securities or an authorised nominee.

Yesterday, the SC issued a brief announcement of its inconclusive findings, drawing much flak, including the DAP’s accusation that it was “covering up” for Azam.

There were also calls for an independent review of SC’s inconclusive findings.

After SC’s announcement yesterday, Azam issued a statement expressing gratitude at being “cleared” of any wrongdoing.

However, he was criticised on social media for equating the inconclusive finding with innocence. – January 19, 2022.