Director of Capital A subsidiary arrested in probe over RM24 million bribe

A director of a subsidiary of Capital A Bhd has been arrested in an investigation into a RM24 million bribery case linked to a loan given by a Sabah bank, just three months after her appointment to the board of the airline company formerly known as AirAsia.

MalaysiaNow can confirm that the woman in her 50s is one of four individuals in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which has also frozen more than 20 bank accounts as part of the investigation.

She is the CEO of a fund management company owned by the Sabah Development Bank (SDB), which is wholly owned by the state government.

A former CEO of the bank is also among those remanded.

It is believed that the case is centred on a RM24 million bribe given in return for the approval of a RM294 million loan by SDB to an energy consultation firm about a decade ago.

When contacted, an MACC source confirmed that such an investigation was underway but refused to divulge details.
 
This is not the first time that SDB has been investigated by MACC. 

Two years ago, the anti-graft body launched a probe into a RM300 million loan to AirAsia approved during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the state was still under a Warisan government.

MalaysiaNow understands that the latest arrests have no links with the 2020 probe involving the loan to the troubled airline which former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal had defended.

Shortly after taking over from Shafie, Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor reportedly criticised the release of the loan to AirAsia, in tandem with the investigation by MACC.

SDB later claimed that the MACC investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing by the bank in granting the loan.