wmlro.com: Malaysia finds jet engines; freezes property
The story of the stolen fighter jet engines that is consuming Malaysians' news interest has ended up with an asset freeze under the Anti Money Laundering Act of AMLA.
The story is that two jet engines awaiting maintenance at a Kuala Lumpur military airbase were spirited away, with their documentation and records, and sold for profit.
Links have been found to a Malaysian registered company with a branch "in a neighbouring country" and to a South African aircraft parts dealer.
Preliminary investigations showed that the engines were sold either for parts or as non-working but repairable. But in fact, they had been taken out of aircraft and while the body was being maintained, the engines waited their turn.
But aircraft engines are not easy to hide: new parts have to be matched to the engine serial number. And that means that the engines can be tracked. Re-used or reconditioned parts must be logged including their individual records. At least, that's the case for equipment that is in lawful use.
General Electric appears to have had requests for parts that it was able to tie to the stolen engines, and now the engines have been located. In Argentina where the military does not have they type of aircraft that the engines came out of.
Now the authorities in Malaysia are satisfied that the local company was involved and have taken steps to freeze its assets, which are bizarre for a trading company: a large house and two up-market condominiums plus cash at bank.
The Minster of Defence has already said that there is evidence that the theft was an inside job and that those responsible had been tracking the engines for some time.
In the meantime, there is clamour for senior officers to be held responsible, even if not directly involved.
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