The 56-year-old civil servant, arrested on Friday, works in a division of a government agency, according to a report carried by Star Online.
It said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission described him as the syndicate mastermind. A woman and seven men were also arrested, and all remanded for a week.
The eight other suspects were said to be contractors, from 14 companies that received payments for programmes by a government ministry. The programmes were never carried out, according to the report.
MACC has also seized 12 luxury cars, luxury items such as jewellery, watches and expensive handbags and froze a total of 69 banks accounts containing a total of RM8.33 million.
MACC investigations division director Azam Baki was quoted as saying that the mastermind was believed to have received some RM20mil in kickbacks.
“So far, our investigations show that they have been operating since 2010, but we won’t rule out the possibility they have been active even before that,” he said at a press conference at MACC headquarters today.
The senior officer had received kickbacks in the form of houses, luxury cars, insurance and trust fund payments worth millions of Ringgit as well as supplementary credit cards.
He had led a lavish lifestyle and had bought watches and handbags at up to RM400,000 each.
He said the case was being investigated under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act.