IRB: Scam didn’t involve ex-officers

The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: No former Inland Revenue Board (IRB) officers were involved in a stamp duty scam involving hundreds of millions of ringgit as alleged, clarified IRB chief executive officer Hasmah Abdullah.

“We have conducted our own checks and found that those involved were ex-runners for law firms and not our former staff,” she said at a press conference here yesterday.

Hasmah was commenting on a newspaper report yesterday that an ex-IRB officer allegedly masterminded a stamp duty scam, which involved business deal agreements worth hundreds of millions of ringgit.

According to the report, Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department officers uncovered the syndicate’s activities last week, and some of the agreements belonged to law firms, financial institutions and individuals.