UPDATED 2.28PM | The MACC is on the lookout for the former Apco Malaysia head Paul Stadlen in connection with its investigation into the 1MDB scandal.
In a statement, the anti-graft body said Stadlen, a British citizen, was being sought as a witness to help facilitate the investigation.
"The man, Paul Geoffrey Stadlen's, 39, last known address was Unit A-29-8, Blok A, Loft Sentral Condominium, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, KL Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.
"Those who know him or who possess information on Paul Stadlen are requested to contact senior superintendent Zuhaila Arip at 03-8870 0364 or email to [email protected]; or contact superintendent Fahmee Mohd Nor at 03-8870 0419 or email [email protected]," the statement says.
Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police Fuzi Harun later stated that the police had no current need for Stadlen's assistance in their respective investigations into 1MDB.
Speaking to reporters this morning, he said police were, however, ready to extend help to the MACC in seeking for Stadlen.
"That is MACC's investigation, we are not getting involved unless they ask for our assistance, (then) we would assist them (to get Stadlen).
"So far there was nothing in our probe that requires we call him in," Fuzi said during a press conference at the Royal Malaysian Police College in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, this morning.
The police chief was asked if his men were also seeking Stadlen's assistance in their probe.
Stadlen, a Malaysian permanent resident who headed the Malaysian office of the controversial communications consultancy giant, Apco Worldwide, was alleged to have managed former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's public relations and press operations.
In 2009, the then BN government paid Apco Worldwide a whopping RM77 million to manage Malaysia's image internationally. The contract was reportedly renewed in 2010 amid public outcry.
Whistle-blower website Sarawak Report had alleged that Stadlen himself was paid millions of ringgit to mastermind a communications policy that resulted in the PMO's speedy statement on PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's 2015 sodomy conviction.
The portal also alleged that Stadlen's firm was retained by the PMO at a minimum of RM3 million a year and had been commissioned for a 1MDB-related project worth another RM1.5 million.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that he was a part of the Prime Minister's Office's (PMO) National Communications Team back in 2013.
In 2015, however, the government denied that Stadlen had been hired as a government servant, and as such had not received any allowances, wages and remuneration from the government.
After his role in Apco, Stadlen also worked with FBC Media, a lobby group linked to a vicious online campaign against Anwar by the discredited US blogger Josh Trevino and his company, Rogue Communications.
