Sabah Graft Macc Probing Alleged Bid To Buy Off Whistleblower

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MACC has widened its investigation into the alleged corruption scandal involving Sabah’s elected representatives after a whistleblower claimed there was an attempt to bribe him.
MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki confirmed this, saying he has ordered investigators to look into the matter.
“We will include this matter in our investigation because it is linked to the same case.
“I have ordered my officers to look into it as we need to establish what this is about,” he told Malaysiakini this morning.
Azam was asked to comment if MACC is looking into the whistleblower’s latest allegation, where he claimed that several Sabah representatives had made an offer to reinstate the mineral exploration licence for his company.
This offer, allegedly made through a chairperson of the whistleblower’s company, was purported to buy him off into changing his story and clear the names of the elected representatives he had implicated in previous media exposure.
“MACC will summon every witness we think is necessary to investigate this claim that was published by Malaysiakini,” Azam added.
On Monday, Malaysiakini published an article where the whistleblower claimed that Sabah Governor Musa Aman’s son-in-law, Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif, offered a settlement to silence him.
According to the businessperson, the alleged settlement included reinstating his revoked mineral exploration licences in exchange for issuing a public statement declaring that the funds were political donations.
He also shared a purportedly pre-written media statement, which he claimed was prepared for him, stating that he had made similar "contributions" to assemblypersons from Umno, Star, and PBS.
Arifin, who is Membakut assemblyperson, had since denied the allegations as misleading and vowed legal action, claiming Malaysiakini failed to verify the claims before publishing despite the news portal’s attempts to reach him. - Mkini

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