How MACC Used IBI Strategies To Crack Major Graft Cases Under Azam Baki

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Bernama) -- Intelligence-Based Investigations (IBI) has emerged as the cornerstone of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) modern anti-graft enforcement strategy under the leadership of Tan Sri Azam Baki.

MACC Strategic Communications Division director Hisyam Mohd Yusoff said the proactive approach enables the agency to detect crimes even before formal reports are lodged by leveraging financial analytics and the latest technologies to gather evidence and trace illicit financial flows.

“Azam has consistently promoted IBI as the ‘new face’ of the MACC to enhance public confidence and strengthen the agency’s operational efficiency, which has also been credited as one of the contributing factors behind the MACC achieving a conviction rate of up to 95 per cent,” he said in a statement here today.

He said one of the key successes of the IBI approach was ‘Op Setting’, which targeted a ‘counter setting’ syndicate at airports and involved six months of intelligence surveillance using information analysis technology.

The operation led to the arrest of dozens of enforcement officers as well as the seizure and freezing of assets worth more than RM9 million, including gold, luxury vehicles, cash and bank accounts, without the need to wait for official reports.

In addition, he said the MACC recovered RM15.5 billion in assets through several high-profile operations from 2021 to early 2026 as part of efforts to combat money laundering and the shadow economy.

He said financial intelligence was utilised to trace financial transactions and identify the true beneficial owners behind concealed assets, thereby enabling the recovery of misappropriated and embezzled national wealth.

Among the agency’s other notable achievements was the recovery of 70 per cent, or RM31 billion, of assets linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has become a benchmark at the global level.

In the case involving former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, he said MACC operations resulted in the seizure of RM170 million in foreign currencies and gold bullion.

Hisyam said under Azam’s leadership, the MACC also launched operations to dismantle ‘corporate mafia’ syndicates through ‘Ops Sky’, involving bank officers and financial consultants accused of illegally approving personal loans, particularly for civil servants.

Meanwhile, ‘Op Sohor’, launched on Oct 14 last year, crippled activities involving Malaysian Armed Forces intelligence personnel suspected of leaking military operational information to smuggling syndicates in exchange for bribes amounting to RM3 million.

He also described investigations into non-governmental organisation, Aman Palestin, between 2023 and 2024 as among the country’s largest cases involving the misappropriation of humanitarian funds, with estimated losses amounting to RM39.5 million.

The organisation’s top leadership is now facing 164 charges, including criminal breach of trust and money laundering, following allegations that funds intended for Palestinian aid were misused for personal investments and the acquisition of assets, including land, buildings and gold bullion.

At the international level, he said Azam was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) for the 2025-2027 term.

He was also reappointed as a member of the Board of Governors of the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) for the 2024-2027 term in recognition of his contributions towards strengthening global cooperation in combating corruption.

Azam, who joined the organisation in 1984 when it was known as the Anti-Corruption Agency, is set to retire tomorrow after 42 years of service.

On April 25, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, consented to the appointment of former High Court judge Datuk Seri Abdul Halim Aman as the new MACC Chief Commissioner, effective May 13.

-- BERNAMA