Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the government will leave it to enforcement agencies to read the report and carry out an investigation into Malaysians mentioned in the leaked documents, adding that actions can be taken against anyone based on their findings. — Picture by Firdaus Latif
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — The government will not interfere if any enforcement agency wishes to investigate the Pandora Papers, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.
He said that the government will leave it to enforcement agencies to read the report and carry out an investigation into Malaysians mentioned in the leaked documents, adding that actions can be taken against anyone based on their findings.
“We are open and we will leave it to the enforcement agencies, such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to read the report and carry out any investigation.
“But they must have proof first,” he told reporters at the Seri Perak Public Housing in Sentul here this morning.
On October 3, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Pandora Papers, a hoard of data — reportedly involving some 11.9 million documents and 2.9 terabytes of data — used to expose supposedly corrupt dealings of the global elite.
It is the largest trove of leaked offshore data in history with documents coming from offshore service providers operating in Anguilla, Belize, Singapore, Switzerland, Panama, Barbados, Cyprus, Dubai, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Vietnam.
Malaysians mentioned in the documents include former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong, and current Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.