DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng today questioned why the anti-graft agency acted so swiftly to investigate Court of Appeal judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali but not its own chief who was implicated in a proxy stock trading scandal.

“Why did the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) fail to immediately open an investigation paper on Azam Baki for (allegedly) breaching the law in purchasing millions of shares?” the Bagan MP said in a statement. 

He also wanted to know why the source of the Nazlan-related speculation was not being investigated. 

“Azam explained that the probe was part of MACC’s procedure to investigate whenever a report is lodged,” he said.

“Blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s (RPK) portal Malaysia Today has accused Nazlan of having ‘unexplained wealth’. 

“Why is there no criminal investigation into RPK’s allegations, which have consistently been proved to be false and baseless?”  

Lim said the UK-based Raja Petra should be requested to return to Malaysia for an investigation despite him being in exile in London. 

“If RPK refuses to return and if there are sufficient grounds for criminal charges to be filed, then RPK should be extradited,” he added. 

A Malaysia Today article has alleged that Nazlan owns “unexplained wealth”. The judge has lodged a police report over the accusation. 

Earlier, there was talk circulating that Nazlan was related to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

Responding to the matter, Dr Mahathir’s daughter, Marina, said the family would be flattered to have a learned judge as their relative, but added that Nazlan was not one. 

Embattled former prime minister Najib Razak’s legal team has also alleged that Nazlan had a conflict of interest in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad investigation. 

As a High Court judge in 2020, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million for corruption, abuse of power and money laundering. 

The decision was upheld in the Court of Appeal. Najib is appealing the verdict in the Federal Court. 

Meanwhile, Azam has been put under the spotlight for owning 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Berhad (formerly known as KBES Berhad) on April 30, 2015 worth about RM772,000 then. 

Azam maintained that the shares were not his, but his brother’s, who had bought them with his account.

The situation has triggered a Securities Commission investigation for possible trading account misuse. 

It eventually found that there was “no conclusive evidence” that Azam had violated the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991. – April 24, 2022.