KUALA LUMPUR: Fifteen registered trading companies in Malaysia are believed to be involved in suspicious money transfers totalling around RM3.8 billion, suspected to be proceeds from fraudulent activities.
Bukit Aman's Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, said that fraud syndicates utilised these companies to establish bank accounts for channelling ill-gotten funds to 43 countries.
"Based on our investigation, CCID has identified a trend wherein companies are registered, and bank accounts are opened in their names to use them as dummy accounts.
"This strategy has become a favoured choice as it facilitates more frequent financial transactions involving substantial amounts.
"Therefore, apart from individual mule accounts, we now encounter mule accounts under company names, posing a heightened financial threat because transactions disguised under companies involve sums of money that can reach billions of ringgit," he told reporters during the press conference after the launch of Semakmule 2.0 today.
Ramli said these companies were legally established and maintained typical corporate structures, including boards of directors and staff, to obscure their activities from law enforcement authorities.
However, he added that these companies typically shut down their operations once the transactions were completed.
Thus, he assured that those 15 trading companies were under their scrutiny, and the investigation is ongoing.
"However, in terms of identification, that is as far as we have from our counterpart overseas, and we are also actively seeking out company secretaries and related individuals.
"Nothing escapes our radar in our investigation, which means we don't adopt a different approach. Our methodology remains consistent, and we will focus on these companies.
"There are 15 companies that we have pinpointed; indeed, we have established the identities of their board of directors and related personnel.
"Unfortunately, these directors seem unaware; they unwittingly become instruments for the company's schemes."
Ramli also said the police had cooperated with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) to prevent further misuse of companies.
"One of the weaknesses that can be addressed, as we have had preliminary discussions (with CCM), is the ease in setting up companies in Malaysia.
"We cannot deny that there needs to be a better system in this modern era, but that system has been abused, for example, to register companies very quickly.
"Nowadays, registering a company is very easy, and sometimes these companies have no solid background but are injected with finances which make them look legal and genuine."