KUALA LUMPUR: Senior officers from four local banks have come on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) radar for allegedly being in cahoots with a distributing and logistics company over a RM60 million loan scandal.

The officers are believed to have approved the loan without the proper due dilligence done after receiving under the table money.

It is learnt the loan applicants had created sole proprietorship companies and fake invoices to falsify their income and profits, and then bribed loan officers including a branch manager and division head, to facilitate the approval of loan applications.

Among other, they claimed to have recorded RM130 million profit in a period of 12 months between March 2021 to March 2022.

The grafts busters are investigating allegations that a couple involved in the case - who are the sole shareholder and director of the company along with its accountant and auditors, had falsified the documents.

With the loan, the two individuals are alleged to have acquired a luxury house worth more than RM7.5 million and a luxury sedan.

According to sources, the company's total loans increased from only RM5.8 million (September 2022) to RM33.3 million (March 2023) in a short period of 6 months and in just the last 2 months (19 May 2023), the company was declared bankrupt.

Although the company's winding-up procedure is still ongoing, the loan amount continued to increase to RM43 million on June 30.

Of this, they claimed that RM36 million had been approved and distributed.

"There is another RM27.1 million that is in the process of getting approval from other banks.

"This company clearly does not have the ability to repay the amount of debt for loans given by banks. Their sole purpose of obtaining such a large loan is to run away with the money.

"Ultimately, the bank and bank shareholders will suffer huge losses due to the company's failure to pay the loans obtained through fraud and bribery given to bank officials," they said.

Sources said a total of RM7,000,000 per month in 2022 had also been deposited into the company's current bank account by at least four new companies that were established in June 2022.

The company had an upfront capital of RM1 and shareholders were only aged 29 years old.

MACC Director of Investigations Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim has confirmed that the graft-busters had received the report.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2023/08/946422/four-banks-macc-radar-accepting-bribes-facilitate-loan-approval