Fourth man arrested in task force's probe

KUALA LUMPUR • The special task force investigating the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case has nabbed a fourth person.

Datuk Rosman Abdullah, a 48-year-old managing director, was brought to the Putrajaya magistrates court yesterday by officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), one of four agencies in the task force. He was remanded for four days.

An MACC spokesman said Datuk Rosman was arrested on Friday as part of the investigation into SRC International and was also being probed under a section of the MACC Act that covers bribery.

The arrest came after the MACC detained Mr Ariffin Ismail Shahul Hameed, a 28-year-old company director, on Thursday and Datuk Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman, managing director of Ihsan Perdana, on Tuesday. Mr Shamsul was released yesterday on bail of RM100,000 (S$36,000).

SRC was a 1MDB subsidiary before being made a full subsidiary of the Finance Ministry in 2012. It was named in a July 3 report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as being linked to the alleged transfer of millions of dollars into the bank accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The WSJ alleged that RM42 million (S$15 million) from SRC ended up in Datuk Seri Najib's personal accounts via Ihsan Perdana, a company that has run corporate social responsibility programmes for 1MDB.

The first arrest in the probe was that of construction firm director Jerome Lee, who was detained at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday. He was released on RM100,000 bail on Friday.

Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on July 26, 2015, with the headline Fourth man arrested in task force's probe. Subscribe