A high-tech company at the centre of a criminal investigation that has rocked Malaysia's "silicon valley" denied allegations of a 50 million-ringgit ($13 million) fraud, the Star newspaper said on Tuesday. State-funded InventQJaya, which helped spearhead Malaysia's plan to develop a high-tech precinct, commissioned an independent audit that found no sign of impropriety, the daily quoted Chief Executive Sadeg Faris Mustafa as saying.
Last week, the finance ministry said police were investigating a report by a senior official of the firm alleging irregularities in payments made by the company without board authorisation.
State news agency Bernama has quoted police as saying they were hunting for a chief executive accused of stealing 50 million ringgit ($13 million) from a business based in Cyberjaya, the hub of Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).
Police have declined to name the firm or the executive, but InventQjaya has identified itself as the subject of the Star's front-page report about the police investigation, under the headline "50 mln ringgit MSC sting".
InventQJaya is wholly owned by US-based research and development company Reveo Inc, the finance ministry said, adding InventQJaya had drawn down 228 million ringgit of a loan facility worth 437 million the government had agreed to give it in 2003. Calls by Reuters to the Malaysian company were unanswered.
In the newspaper report, Sadeg said his company had met or exceeded commitments made under its loan and technology transfer agreements with the government, but its accounts had been frozen by the finance ministry without any explanation.
"There are no other holders in IQJ and nobody is being victimised," the Star quoted him as saying. "IQJ is accountable to the loan and technology agreements, its board and to Malaysian law."
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