Aerodyne accused conduit for political slush fund

Four days ago on November 8th, Focus Malaysia published an article entitled “Malaysian drone high-flyer Aerodyne in financial mess even after swallowing RM300m public money”. 

Since then, the article has viral on social media and republished by i3Investor and Reddit. Aerodyne is in play. More so, Azam Baki hinted that another Khazanah company is on its radar screen. Believe there are many more. 

It all started when Aerodyne owner, Datok Kamarul Muhammad uttered the word "a#**hole" in his  remark on November 5th X in reaction to the debacle on his fellow start-up Fashion Valet. MACC has moved in on FV and from the discussion on Sosmed, they have found irregularities and peculiar transactions.    

Free Malaysian continued their salvo on X against Aerodyne. Revealed that it is a RM100,000 company and have been borrowing all around for RM300 million yet it is not profitable. Can read it on in Focus Malaysia. 

This issue of Aerodyne is actually not new. 

A blog revealed back in May 2022, during the PN administration led by Ismail Sabri that Aerodyne had received a grant from the ICU Prime Minister's Department for RM200 million. 

Companies making losses and receiving grant is not a big deal. Its a common day-to-day affair in start-up businesses in the venture capital industry. But ....

Before moving further, lets first make it clear that there is no intention to kill this "successful" unicorn (that's what the Malaysian media and IT community claim them to be). 

More so they are a Bumiputera company. 

So saving the best for last, reproduce below a 2022 expose by Freemalaysiabaru news in Malay:

Tokpa luluskan RM200 juta dana ICU duit rakyat kepada kroninya ‘bailout’ Aerodyne Group

freemalaysiabaru May 10, 2022

Nampaknya kerajaan tidak pernah serik selepas memberi dana RM20 juta kini RM200 juta (bail out) kepada syarikat dron Aerodyne Ventures Sdn Bhd atau Aerodyne sebuah syarikat yang rugi hampir RM7 juta tahun lalu menggunakan dana rakyat di bawah Unit Penyelarasan Pelaksanaan Jabatan Perdana Menteri (ICU) oleh Menterinya Dato’ Sri Mustapa Bin Mohamed

Tahun 2019 Aerodyne Ventures Sdn Bhd kecoh selepas disiasat oleh Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Wang Negara (PAC) kerana menggunakan dana RM20 juta Syarikat VentureTech Sdn Bhd (VentureTech), sebuah anak syarikat Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (Might).

RM20 juta membangunkan projek kereta terbang namun telah dijadikan untuk menyuntik modal Aerodyne Group sahaja. Sekalipun dengan dana bantuan kerajaan, syarikat itu tetapi mengalami kerugian.

Menurut Might, Aerodyne berjaya memperoleh AS$30 juta daripada pelabur, antaranya dari Jepun dan Korea Selatan, selain Malaysia. Namun semakan penyata akaun mereka. syarikat ini hanya mempunyai hutang sahaja. Sejak dimulakan rugi RM2.2 juta.

Dilaporkan RM20 juta hangus untuk menghasil projek kereta terbang yang gagal dibangunkan hingga hari ini. Dana yang diterima untuk membangunkan projek lain.

Kelulusan oleh Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed menggunakan dana pembangunan rakyat ICU JPM RM200 juta kepada Aerodyne Group sesuatu yang melampu bagi projek dron yang tidak memberi manfaat kepada rakyat.

Read on here

Words circulating in limited circle and has already been mentioned on social media conversation that the RM200 million grant from ICU was not completely utilised for the company's purpose but was partly a political slush fund. 

The application was for less but the approved was more than requested.

Off course this is what was rumoured and need to be confirmed or even investigated. So caveat emptor, readers beware. 

The company and ICU could give their response or denial. MACC could also investigate. Believe it is tough. 

The political fund, if it is is true, could had been stashed away abroad by now to, say Dubai, and its difficult to trace and retrieve the money. 

If it is true, preferably Kamarul would cooperate and reveal the perpatrators than subject himself and company through the hardship of being investigated, account frozen, and operation hampered to merely cover-up the wrongdoings of suspected three politicians; one currently from PAS, one from PPBM and one from UMNO.

Furthermore, Aerodyne is a recipient of MAVCAP fund which is now under the Khazanah management. There have been too many talk of hanky panky gory in MAVCAP. 

Lets clean up all this improper tatakelola so that all entrepreneurs have a fair chance of getting funding. A clear warning should be given to unscrupulous politicians taking advantage of genuine entrepreneurs.