Malaysian Agency Offloads Melbourne Building Offshore For Nearly $25m

Malaysian government agency MARA has sold a commercial office building on Melbourne's Queen Street to an offshore investor for close to $25 million, according to The Australian Financial Review.

The transaction reportedly results in a profit for the Malaysian agency, which has made a capital gain of around 50 per cent after acquiring the property at 51 Queen Street in 2012 for $16.4 million reported The AFR. 

The Queen Street property was held by Singapore-based Marinn Pte Ltd, one of the entities in which MARA uses to invest.

The property is one of a group of four properties controlled by MARA Inc which came into question following an investigation by Fairfax.

In 2015, the Australian Federal Police launched a raid over Malaysian property 'kickback' deals as part of an international bribery and money-laundering investigation involving high-ranking Malaysian officials and businessmen, seizing documents and computers from various locations across Melbourne. The raid was titled Operation Carambola in response to an investigation by Fairfax Media. The AFP publicly thanked Fairfax Media during this time.

Corruption links to foreign property purchases last year resulted in a number of prestige properties being forcibly sold by the government.