Vell Paari in the dark over MACC raid on Maika Holdings
By K Pragalath
PUCHONG: MIC secretary general S Vell Paari claims to be in the dark over the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission raid on Maika Holdings.
“I honestly don’t know about it. I am not with the company any longer. There was a liquidator previously,” said Vell Paari to The Leaders Online.
MACC officers raided the Maika Holdings office in Klang and its company secretary’s office in Brickfields yesterday.
“MACC raided both offices at around noon yesterday. The officers were there for a few hours and left with some documents,” the source told.
The news portal reported that the anti-graft body will conduct more raids in the near future, as well as call up several people for questioning.
The source said that MACC was instructed to act against Maika following an exposé by Sarawak Report in February this year.
Sarawak Report alleged that Maika had passed millions of ringgit in cash and other forms of payments to companies linked to its former chief executive Datuk Seri S. Vell Paari.
It claimed twenty cash payments totalling RM1.6mil by Maika to him between 2003 and 2009, some under the guise of “promotional finder fees”.
Vell Paari was reported saying that Maika Holdings had owed him money – claiming that payments remitted to him when he was the fund’s chief executive were mere refunds.
Vell Paari claimed that he was also blackmailed prior to the expose, with the extortionists demanding payment of RM3.5mil to “resolve the subject matter of the article”.
