“I don’t think it will stop with FIC, the Kensington property and Kuching property. There will be other cases.
“But what’s important for me to say is that we are open to any investigation,” Shahrir said during a press conference after a Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) dialogue at Menara Felda here, in which Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin also took part.
Shahrir was responding to a question on the current status of the MACC investigation.
He said he was unsure what stage the investigation was currently at.
“As far as FIC is concerned, it is a 100%-owned subsidiary. The investigation has proceeded into the purchase of the hotel in Kuching.
“Action has been taken, there were people remanded, but I don’t know at what stage the probe is now.
“I don’t even understand the law these days.”
In August, the Grand Borneo Hotel in Kota Kinabalu brought to three the number of hotels purchased by FIC and under investigation by MACC.
The three-star hotel was reportedly acquired by Felda in 2012 for RM86.4 million.
Investigators became suspicious over the Grand Borneo Hotel deal while probing into two other deals by FIC, involving the four-star Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel in London and the five-star Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites in Kuching.
It was reported then that MACC was seeking to determine if the acquisition of the Grand Borneo Hotel was made in the same manner as the other two.
FIC acquired the Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel on Dec 16, 2014, allegedly at a much higher price than the market price. This purportedly resulted in FIC losing millions of ringgit.
The hotel in Kuching is also alleged to have been bought at a price much higher than its original value.