KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian conglomerate under investigation for child abuse and money laundering eluded authorities for years by hiding behind a thriving global Islamic business network, according to police and the company’s now-offline website. Horrific allegations of child sexual assault came to light in September when police first rescued more than 400 youngsters from care homes operated by Global Ikhwan Services and Business (GISB). Malaysian police chief Razarudin Husain has said that at least 13 youngsters under 17 suffered sexual abuse in what the media has dubbed as the “houses of horror”.
The group ran more than 100 care homes in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation where children as young as one year old were housed. “They basically exploit religious belief, and this is not unusual. A lot of cults operate like this .
.. It’s a form of social engineering,” Munira Mustafa, executive director of security consultancy Chasseur Group in the capital Kuala Lumpur, told AFP.
“It’s just them being very adept at leveraging the potential vulnerabilities that exist in society. It’s as simple as that,” she added. A total of 625 children have been rescued, while 415 people have been arrested in large-scale police raids that crippled the company’s businesses.
The firm’s chief executive Nasiruddin Ali was charged on Wednesday along with his wife Azura Yusof and 20 senior leaders with being members of an organized crime group. Several other people have bee.
