KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership has confirmed in a statement that it is the legal firm the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had visited on Friday and demanded to search its premises and seize its documents, but assured that no client documents were taken despite the agency's demands.
It said 12 MACC officers had visited its office on Friday made the demands.
"We have informed the MACC officers and we wish to reiterate the legal sanctity of a law office where clients’ documents are legally privileged and cannot be seized by the MACC by reason of Section 46 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.
"Section 46 clearly recognises the legal inviolability of privileged information or communication. Accordingly, the MACC officers had no access to any of our clients’ documents," it said.
It said it is committed to preventing "any form of abuse, exploitation or coercion by any authority in the course of us acting for our clients".
"The rakyat has the right to legal representation and this universal principle cannot be ignored. Lawyers are a key part of the administration of justice in a society that aspires to be a functioning and progressive democracy.
"Lawyers and law enforcement agencies are duty bound to respect and uphold the law. We remain committed to this principle, and we will continue to protect the legal rights and interest of all our clients — without fear or favour," it added.
It was reported on Friday that the MACC was investigating several individuals, including a lawyer, on suspicion of being involved in corruption and money laundering during the government's efforts to recover assets related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
According to Bernama, quoting a source with the MACC, the lawyer had been appointed by 1MDB to resolve the company’s asset issues with foreign companies, and MACC officers had gone to the law firm involved on Friday, to obtain documents related to the probe. The law firm had been identified by some news reports at the time as Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership.
The lawyer also allegedly received a significant amount of money that is said to have been invested in an unlicensed company that had been imposed with action from Bank Negara Malaysia in 2021.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki had confirmed that the investigation was being conducted under the MACC Act 2009 as well as the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001. He also denied the presence of MACC officers at the law firm’s premises violates any existing laws because the commission adheres to regulations and is aware of the privacy between the lawyer and their clients.
The lawyer involved in the probe, meanwhile, had described the investigation as malicious and made up of false accusations. The probe, he told his partners in a note sighted by The Edge that the publication reported on Saturday morning, is an excuse to victimise him and the firm. "It is to make us pariahs," he said.
He also said he had been questioned at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya for about four hours from late afternoon to about 8pm on Friday, with another senior partner, after the anti-graft body went to their office on Friday morning and took some documents.
The investigation is on an undisclosed report that the Goldman Sachs settlement was unfavourable to Malaysia because the law firm allegedly received kickbacks from the US financial institution.
The lawyer said there were past striking allegations made by an individual and an organisation against him, and the lawyer had taken action to clear his name, resulting in an apology from one of them. “I had also lodged reports on this matter in 2021 and this year,” the lawyer said in the note.
The lawyer, in the note to the firm, also said it was illogical to suggest that he or the firm had manipulated the Goldman Sachs negotiation, as it was also supervised by the 1MDB task force that comprised the attorney general, Bank Negara governor, Securities Commission Malaysia chairman, Inspector General of Police, National Anti-Financial Crime Centre and the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre under the Finance Ministry, and headed by the then finance minister.
“Even MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and the MACC director of anti-money laundering were directly involved. Surely they would know it is impossible to fiddle with the negotiations,” the lawyer said, adding he had sent a letter to current 1MDB task force chairman and Titiwangsa Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani to deny the new allegations.
The Edge is withholding the name of the lawyer who made the note and is subject to the probe.