In a statement released by the Singapore High Commission, the republic’s police force said there had been multiple correspondences between both parties since December last year following the Malaysian police’s request to travel to the country for the purpose.

It said the Commercial Affairs Department’s (CAD) had proposed for the Malaysian team to conduct its visit between Feb 8 and Feb 9 this year, but the Malaysian side only responded on March 10, requesting to enter the republic in mid to late March.

On March 3, Bukit Aman said it was waiting for the green light from their Singapore counterparts to cross the border to continue investigating graft allegations against Tawfiq.

Its Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Kamarudin Md Din told FMT that the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in Malaysia and Singapore had disrupted the progress of the investigation.

“We will go as soon as they allow us to cross the border,” Kamarudin said.

On March 8, deputy law minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told Parliament that police were supposed to continue with the investigation in Singapore but were unable to do so because the border had been closed.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki had earlier said the agency was not investigating Tawfiq, whose company in Singapore is said to have received 1MDB-linked funds from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

Azam said that MACC was only tasked with repatriating 1MDB funds from Singapore and that the probe into Tawfiq was being handled by the police.

Singapore police were reported to have informed Bank Negara Malaysia of suspicious transactions in 2015 and 2016 involving a company owned by Zeti’s husband and one of her sons.

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