KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Friday said James Chai Jin Shern, the former aide to Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, has yet to formally respond or arrange to meet investigators despite multiple attempts to contact him regarding an ongoing investigation.
The anti-graft commission, in a statement, said Chai is required to "immediately" present himself at its headquarters in Putrajaya to assist with the probe.
“If James Chai maintains that he has done nothing wrong, the appropriate course of action is straightforward — present himself to MACC investigators and provide his statement, rather than continue issuing public explanations while avoiding direct engagement with the investigative process,” the commission said.
MACC also listed five investigating officers along with their phone numbers in the statement, urging Chai to contact any one of them without delay to arrange his return to Malaysia and facilitate the recording of his statement.
The commission stressed that cooperation with law enforcement authorities is a basic obligation when an individual is required to assist in an investigation, and that "public narratives and media statements cannot replace the legal process of investigating cases".
The RM1.1 billion deal
The investigation centres on a RM1.1 billion government agreement involving a foreign company, which the MACC began probing last month following reports of alleged misappropriation linked to a former senior minister.
The collaboration, involving the Malaysian government and UK-based Arm Holdings plc, was initiated during Rafizi’s tenure as economy minister, with the aim of strengthening Malaysia’s semiconductor design capabilities and develop locally designed graphics processing unit (GPU) chips over a five-to-seven-year period.
Under the deal, the Malaysia Investment Development Authority (Mida) signed a deal with Arm to obtain intellectual property licences and compute subsystems valued at US$250 million (about RM1.11 billion), payable over a 10-year period. In return, the company is entitled to collect royalties on chips sold.
On Wednesday (March 4), MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirmed that an individual linked to the investigation had yet to return to Malaysia to have his statement recorded despite attempts to reach him through several channels.
Azam also said the commission had already called a former minister to provide a statement and that a total of 12 witnesses from various government agencies — including the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti), and Mida — had been questioned.
The agency has also obtained key documents from relevant ministries and reviewed Cabinet papers related to the agreement.
Public rebuttal
Following the MACC's public search notice, Chai — currently based in the UK — issued a six-page rebuttal. He denied all allegations of misappropriation or abuse of power and criticised the MACC for making a public spectacle of the trace, arguing it created an impression that he was a fugitive.
Chai claimed the agency could have reached him via friends, colleagues, email or social media, noting he had served as Rafizi's special officer before briefly assisting Arm in setting up its Southeast Asian operations post-resignation.
The MACC has since doubled down, labelling Chai’s claims as inaccurate and misleading, specifically dismissing as “completely untrue” his assertion that the commission failed to reach out to him before issuing the notice to trace him.
It claimed that investigating officers had made several attempts to reach Chai via WhatsApp beginning Feb 24 after he was traced to the UK, but received no response.
The MACC maintained that calling an individual to assist an investigation does not imply guilt and reiterated that the probe will be conducted professionally and based on evidence.