KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 17): Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli said that the corruption allegations levelled against him involving RM3.6 billion funds — an amount exceeding former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1MDB-Tanore case — is an attack by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.
He said that the allegations show the dangers of allowing Azam Baki to continue exercising power as the anti-corruption agency’s chief, while the latter (Azam) is under investigation on allegations of corruption himself.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the former minister of economy said the MACC is being used as a weapon against those who question Azam.
Rafizi cited the commission’s raid of the Securities Commission (SC) in 2022 following allegations that Azam owned shares that far exceeded what is permissible for civil servants, as well as his own admission that his trading account was being used by his brother, possibly breaching stock market regulations.
“This situation creates the risk of abuse of power, with the MACC being used as a weapon against those who question him (Azam), as seen in the investigations against the Securities Commission (2021) and myself (2026), both of which coincidentally occurred when his integrity was being questioned.
“That is why the appropriate action is to suspend Tan Sri Azam Baki immediately, as should have been done by (Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim since last week,” said Rafizi in a statement.
In January 2022, the SC said that it will be summoning Azam and those involved in the shares ownership related to him to get an explanation on his statement and to compile relevant evidence.
The SC said that under Section 24 of the Securities Industry Act (Central Depositories) 1991 (Sicda), every security account opened with the central depositories must be on the name of the securities beneficiary owner or nominee.
Besides that, Section 29A of Sicda also requires all securities transactions to be implemented by the securities beneficiary owner, or the named nominee.
Not long after the statement by SC looking into Azam’s share trading account, the MACC said that it is looking into certain individuals in the higher management and board of directors of the SC, following a report by a non-governmental organisation alleging corruption and wrongdoing by certain members of the stock market regulator.
The SC later said it found no conclusive evidence that securities laws had been breached by Azam.
Ministry of Economy is just a planner, not implementer
Recently, Rafizi had been linked to allegations of corruptions, especially of that involving a RM1.1 billion government fund, on an agreement between the federal government and a foreign company.
While the MACC never named Rafizi as the former senior minister that it was investigating, the commission however admits getting documents from the Ministry of Economy on the matter.
Rafizi meanwhile had openly said that the MACC is preparing to raid his house and/or office on the allegations of corruption involving the collaboration agreement between the government of Malaysia and Arm Holdings in semiconductor design, involving US$250 million in payment.
In the statement which repeats what was told to The Edge earlier, Rafizi said that the Arm deal went through several Cabinet meetings, inter-ministerial committee meetings and negotiations with Arm, as well as its largest shareholder Softbank Group through its founder Masayoshi Son.
The ministers involved in hashing out the details of the proposal include the then minister of investment, trade and industry Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, as well second finance minister Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan, besides Rafizi himself as the then minister of economy.
Rafizi also claimed that Anwar himself wanted the deal to take off and had conducted negotiations with Arm and Masayoshi Son, together with Tengku Zafrul as the then trade and investment minister, without involvement by the Ministry of Economy.
“The Ministry of Economy is not an implementing ministry. It is a planning ministry and has no authority to manage procurement or contracts of this nature. Therefore, this collaboration with Aa frmll under Miti (the MInistry of Investment, Trade and Industry) and was signed by Mida (the Malaysian Investment Development Authority), an agency under Miti.
“Any payments were processed by Mida and screened/approved by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The draft agreement was reviewed and approved by the Attorney General's Chambers before being presented to and approved by the Cabinet,” said Rafizi.
The member of Parliament for Pandan who had had a fallout with Anwar during the 2025 Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s election also claimed that until today, no evidence has been put forward that any public funds was misappropriated regarding the Arm deal.
“There is no evidence that I took money, no evidence of funds entering my accounts, and no financial proof whatsoever. Most dangerously, these allegations imply that Arm — a semiconductor giant controlling more than 90% of the global device-chip market — bribed me, without any evidence presented.
“If this news is reported internationally, Malaysia's image and its semiconductor industry will receive negative coverage that could harm the country,” he said.
NETR is a policy without any government procurement
Rafizi also clarified that the National Energy Transformation Roadmap (NETR) developed by the Ministry of Economy does not involve any public funds to build projects or procurement. He also stressed that Economy Ministry does not handle procurement, which falls under the MOF.
One of the key policies under NETR is allowing private parties to develop renewable energy projects and supply green power directly to industries without going through Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KL:TENAGA), he said.
One of the projects launched under NETR was a RM2.5 billion investment led by UEM Lestra Bhd, the green investment arm of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, into a large-scale solar power plant with a first phase capacity of 750MWp.
UEM Lestra had earlier set up a 51:49 joint venture with US-based I Squared Capital’s HEXA Renewables for the project. Hong Kong-based real estate firm ESR Group Ltd is among the offtakers for the plant in Segamat, Johor.
The explanation on the role of Economy Ministry, as well as NETR, was to address an allegation of corruption by a social media influencer known as “Caprice”, or Ariz Ramli, against him, regarding UEM Lestra. Rafizi demanded for Caprice to apologise for defamations.
“Since when is a minister responsible for developing policy accused of misconduct over decisions made by a private company unrelated to MoEcon (Ministry of Economy)?
“Any commercial decisions made by UEM Lestra, or any other private company developing renewable-energy projects after NETR was launched, are private decisions unrelated to the government, let alone public procurement,” said Rafizi.