Former Malaysian prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob met anti-graft officials on Thursday, after multiple delays in a multimillion-dollar corruption investigation that has outraged Malaysians worn down by the cascade of such allegations involving senior politicians.
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Ismail Sabri is the latest former leader to be hauled up by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which has gone after prominent politicians and tycoons since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim came to power in 2022.
The country’s shortest-serving prime minister at 15 months, Ismail Sabri was last week named a suspect by the MACC in a money-laundering investigation after stacks of plastic-wrapped cash, gold bars and luxury goods worth 170 million ringgit (US$38.6 million) were seized from safe houses allegedly linked to his aides.
The seizures, which included millions worth of euros, yen and dollars, 16 gold bars worth an estimated 7 million ringgit and a cache of Hublot watches, followed the arrest of four of his aides on February 28.
At least 36 people have been questioned so far in relation to the case, with local media reporting that over a dozen bank accounts have also been frozen.
The former prime minister, 65, who served for decades as a second-line leader in former ruling party Umno before rising to power, had twice delayed reporting to the MACC headquarters in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, citing health issues.