In his keynote address at the annual meeting of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, he said the recovery project was being spearheaded by a multi-agency task force as well as the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre.

He said the project, which involved joint operations of the relevant enforcement agencies, aims to recover the RM5 billion within the next five years.

Tengku Zafrul said the government’s fight against high-risk crimes, through strong collaboration across enforcement agencies and the financial intelligence community, had been fruitful.

For example, in 2021, the disclosures of suspicious transactions had resulted in 70 arrests for various offences, RM136 million in criminal proceeds being frozen or seized, and revenue recovery of more than RM255 million.

He added that Malaysia had improved its ranking in the World Governance Indicator in the past 10 years in terms of accountability, regulatory quality, rule of law, and corruption control.

He also said the country fared better than the average in the East Asia and Pacific region, especially in government effectiveness and regulatory quality.

Tengku Zafrul also said that in the future, the government intended to empower self-regulatory bodies in driving capacity-building efforts to monitor money laundering and terrorism financing in their sectors.

Such bodies would include the Malaysian Bar Council as well as the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

“I am confident that this will further strengthen our anti-money laundering and combating of terrorism financing regime in the coming years,” he said.