KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) may have saved as much as RM2 billion in revenue by cooperating with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in its Ops Power operations against bitcoin mining activities, first implemented two years ago.
MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said agencies like TNB have limited powers, especially in enforcement and preventing the crimes involved. The MACC is ready to assist in the matter, up to the stage of seizures and charges in court.
“The crime of bitcoin mining which was rampant in the last two years, was curbed when TNB itself passed on the information to us.
“There needs to be joint action; for example, the collaboration between MACC and TNB at that time was valued at a total of RM2 billion, and I believe we have saved TNB’s revenue by RM2 billion,” he said.
Azam was speaking at a press conference after the Malaysian Electricity Asset Management and Governance Coordination Improvement Report signing ceremony today.
Also present were Energy Commission chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Razib Dawood, and TNB chief executive officer Datuk Megat Jalaluddin Megat Hassan.
He added that large agencies cannot act in silos when involving high-value losses because it will end up harming the government and not benefiting the community.
MACC has cooperated not only with TNB but also established cooperation with various other agencies, including the Immigration Department.
During Ops Power against a bitcoin syndicate in early 2022, it was found that the electricity theft due to bitcoin mining had caused TNB up to RM2.3 billion in losses from 2018 to 2021.
Through the operations, the MACC detected suspects offering bribes of between RM3,000 and RM300,000 to TNB employees as an inducement to not take action and leaking TNB operational information.
MACC successfully seized RM2.37 million, involving 998 bitcoin premises, frozen assets amounting to RM4.47 million belonging to 97 individuals, 29 companies, and 126 bank accounts, and seized 1,157 bitcoin machines worth RM2.34 million, as well as five luxury cars — BMW, Honda Accord, Toyota Vellfire, Ford Ranger, and Audi.
— Bernama
