FORMER home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has denied any involvement in a private company implicated in a Nepali workers’ recruitment scam. 

Zahid, who is also former deputy prime minister, said he was ready to be investigated by the authorities.

“I’m ready to be investigated, I’m not afraid. I’m ready to provide any proof if I were involved or if I had abused my power or if my family members were involved. 

“They can investigate and I’m ready to come forward. I don’t care if it’s an old or new case, I was never involved and ready to be investigated. It’s not my company,” the Bagan Datuk MP told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby today. 

On Friday, The Nepali Times reported that a company linked to Zahid through a relative was among several private Malaysian companies named in a scam charging Nepalese high fees for visa processing and biometrics testing to secure work in Malaysia.

In all, the firm allegedly took in more than Rs5 billion (RM185 million) from the Nepalese over the last five years.

The Nepali news site in its report, “Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur”, named Bestinet Sdn Bhd together with a few other companies backed by powerful Malaysian politicians as profiteers of Putrajaya’s revised foreign worker application process.

Besides Bestinet, which is allegedly run by Zahid’s brother-in-law Amin Abdul Nor, the report also named Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal and One Stop Centre (OSC), as among the companies involved in the migrant worker registration scam.

Zahid however rebutted the claim, saying he had no relations with Amin. 

“Amin is a Bangladeshi. How did he end up being my brother-in-law. All my younger sisters are married,” he said, adding that he has no shares in the company. 

“The company had a business before I entered the Home Ministry,” Zahid said. 

The report also said that Zahid’s brother, Abdul Hakim Hamidi, and former home minister Azmi Khalid owned shares in the company.

It said the previous practice of applying visas independently cost a fraction of what workers had to pay to go through private companies for visa processing and biometric screening. – July 23, 2018.