POLICE must reopen investigations into allegations of money laundering against a top federal police officer whom they had cleared of wrongdoing, said an anti-graft body and a lawmaker. 

This was necessary to safeguard the integrity of the Malaysian police force after Australian Federal Police seized A$320,000 (RM970,000) from a Malaysian officer’s Sydney bank account on suspicion of money laundering.

Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel said the seizure warranted an investigation on the Malaysian side and the officer in question must go on leave pending the completion of the probe.

“This is essential to safeguard the integrity of the police force,” Gabriel told The Malaysian Insight.

Gabriel was responding to today’s Sydney Morning Herald report that Australian police has confiscated A$320,000 in Malaysian criminal investigation department chief Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd’s account on suspicion of money laundering.

Wan Ahmad, however, is not fighting to have the money returned. The report said Malaysian Federal police Aman had cleared him after an internal inquiry which followed an alert from Australia.

SMH quoted Allaudeen Abdul Majid of the Malaysian integrity unit saying police here had fully investigated the matter and found the funds to have been lawfully generated from the sale of a house and was meant for his daughter.

Allaudeen said Wan Ahmad had asked a close friend, an Indian national named Seenisirajudeen Mohamad Basith, to handle the funds transfer to his daughter, which was inadvertently done without compliance to Australian laws.

“The whole episode was an oversight. No malice was intended to break any laws including Australia’s,” Allaudeen told  Australian investigators. 

Wan Ahmad, who was promoted to CID chief in April last year, had purportedly said he had opened a bank account in Australia in 2011 to channel funds to pay for his daughter’s pursuit of a master’s degree.

“He should explain the quick transactions and show proof where the amounts were sourced.

“Not claiming back the funds doesn’t absolve him of any alleged wrongdoing,” Gabriel said.

The allegations come barely a week after it was reported that Malaysia had dropped in a global corruption index. Malaysia fell seven places in the index last year to  to 62th – its lowest position since the index was incepted in 1995.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said the case of the CID director showed the usual signs of money laundering, which typically involved the moving of funds from one bank account to another.

“The funds involved here are about a million ringgit. That amount far exceeds payment for his daughter’s tertiary education.

“What is strange, surprising even, is that Australian police noticed a possible crime but the Malaysian police cleared him.

“Are they using different standards of investigation?”

Santiago said it was clear that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission needed to investigate the case, including the role of the friend who transferred the money on the police officer’s behalf.

He said Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun should call for another inquiry or invite the MACC to investigate.

“It is strange, really strange that he does not want the money back. Why?

“What comes to mind is that he wants to close the lid on the case. What is he hiding?” – March 2, 2018.