‘Millionaire By 30’ Rafizi Ramli Refutes Claims He Misused Public Funds
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli was earning in British pounds before working with Petronas in Malaysia, where he grew his income exponentially due to good timing.
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In light of all the bribery and corruption happening in the country over the past few years, it isn’t surprising that asset declaration has been a much-talked-about topic among Malaysians.
With the 15th general election looming, the rakyat wants to be sure that they will elect politicians who have their best interests at heart.
One of the first people to declare his assets was none other than PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli.
He declared RM18,851,350 in net assets as of 31 October this year. His total holding of ordinary shares in Invoke Solutions Sdn Bhd was 2,087,598 shares (73% of all ordinary shares issued).
The full declaration of his assets can be found here.
Regarding the source of his wealth
Rafizi was quickly faced with allegations from opposition parties who accused him of misusing public funds to enrich himself.
Batu Pahat Perikatan Nasional candidate Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon claimed that Rafizi’s wealth totalling close to RM18.9 million was built using public funds before the 14th general election.
In response to the allegations, Rafizi explained that he didn’t need to use public funds for his personal interests because he was already a millionaire by the age of 30 while working in Petronas.
Prior to this, he worked as an accountant in London and earned in British pounds before returning to Malaysia.
He made RM2 million by the time he was 30 years old because he worked in the oil and gas industry in Malaysia.
He started earning RM3,750 in Petronas at 26 years old. After six months, he was confirmed as a manager and his salary then leapt to RM11,000 a month.
A year later, he was promoted to head of the Petrochemical Planning Division with a salary of RM25,000 a month.
Since Petronas shortened the service period and retirement age from 60 years to 55, he was paid RM400,000 in compensation at the age of 29 due to the shortened length of service.
He added that he was also working in the industry when oil prices rose sharply and the annual bonus was huge.
However, Rafizi admitted that he collected public funds up to 2018, which included money from souvenir sales and Invoke user subscriptions.
He explained that these funds have been fully used in PKR’s candidates’ campaign, including Rashid Hasnon’s, for GE14.
Regarding the value of the start-up Invoke
Saya baru isytiharkan harta. Kecoh budak-budak UMNO PAS BERSATU persoalkan macam mana aset bersih saya bernilai RM18 juta.
— Rafizi Ramli (@rafiziramli) November 8, 2022
Mana saya kumpul RM2.5 juta tunai masa muda?
Tonton Video Penuh (9 minit):https://t.co/wWNcgK1fxL pic.twitter.com/7A7qxfXb7N
After GE14, the proceeds were all spent and he had no choice but to change Invoke’s business model to commercial to retain all 150 of Invoke’s staff.
All the records, salary statements, and Invoke’s financial and taxation statements are with the authorities.
Rafizi also said whoever disputed the value of Invoke’s shares and claimed that the start-up suffered losses, was not well-versed in financial reports.
He said Invoke’s loss was only at the group level when it first became a commercial company in 2019 but it has been making profits since 2020.
Invoke’s profit in the financial year 2020 is RM507,000, RM653,000 in 2021 and the expected profit for the financial year 2022 is RM1.5 million.
Invoke’s 2022 shares were valued at RM75 million, which is lesser than the valuation done by Cradle, a government agency, that valued Invoke at RM105 million.
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