The machine behind Malaysia's murkiest handshakes
Where enforcement, politics, and family ambitions converge.
And I have your weekend read. Shipping this late as I had things to do and I just wanted to let this stew a little before publishing.
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By now, we all should have an inkling of what Velocity Capital Partner is.
Despite being a penny stock, the Bursa-listed moneylender was linked to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki, who claimed that he had divested his 1.28% stake in the company sometime last year.
This followed a string of Bloomberg exposes, first on Azam and then the MACC more broadly.
Azam maintains he bought his 17.7 million shares in early 2025 and divested them in July that year, with full declaration to the Public Service Department.
Media reports claim he sold his block at a loss exceeding RM400,000.
While the full facts may never be known, certain patterns emerge from the public record. In late 2025, something unusual occurred at Velocity.
Its shareholder register shifted: new names appeared, existing stakes grew, and a block of nearly 800 million shares — 57.57% of the company — consolidated under a single custodian, Hong Seng Capital Sdn Bhd.
Among the new entrants was Azam himself.
None of this featured in the firm’s October 2025 annual report, but it surfaced in SSM filings dated December 26, 2025.
(Azam’s name lingered on that register despite his claimed July exit, pointing to a lag in SSM updates post-transfer.)
A lot has been said about Azam’s brief foray into Velocity. But the moneylender’s backers and manoeuvres in 2025 tell a broader story.
That of a machine: a tightly interlocked web of family proxies, cross-directorships, enforcement veterans, political adjacency, and aggressive corporate plays — all tracing back to a single patriarch.