Family members of Malaysia’s embattled former finance minister Daim Zainuddin are beneficiaries of a multimillion-dollar trust with investments in U.K. and U.S. real estate, documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveal.
The new findings come amid an ongoing investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in response to Pandora Papers revelations linking Daim and others in his inner circle to offshore entities worth at least $31 million.
The MACC announced in December that it was investigating the 85-year-old under the country’s abuse of power and money laundering laws, and confirmed that the agency had seized a skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur as part of the probe. Daim has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Now leaked records from a Cayman Islands financial services firm reveal that Daim’s youngest sons, Amin and Amir, and his wife Naimah Khalid are also the beneficiaries of a trust that held assets worth $52.5 million as recently as 2020.
Financial statements show that Daim’s wife created ZA Star Trust in 2010, and that the trust had investments in three British Virgin Islands companies. Two of those companies own two properties in London, including an eight-floor office building near St. Paul’s Cathedral acquired in 2014 for $50.8 million, according to U.K.’s property register. The third BVI company indirectly owns shares in nine entities registered in Delaware and Massachusetts that were used to invest…
