KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): Iris Corp Bhd deputy managing director Datuk Hamdan Hassan and an international sales manager of the company were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday amid allegations of graft and abuse of power, according to a report on a local daily's online portal.

The report today said the probe was related to Iris's 15-year contract agreement with the Republic of Guinea in West Africa.

Recall that the company had in 2014 secured the RM739.21 million contract for the supply and implementation of secure chip technology solutions, including electronic passports, visa, permanent residence identification card and related software and hardware.

Quoting a source within the MACC, the report said Hamdan and the sales manager had allegedly abused their positions by demanding bribes from the project.

"The cost of each e-passport was priced at US$46 (RM204.79) and the company was to pay US$23 (RM102.40) from the amount to the government of the African nation," the source was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Iris said it will be issuing a statement on the matter later today.

This latest development comes amid Iris's plan for a major restructuring, to refocus on its core trusted identification business.

IRIS co-founder and group managing director Datuk Tan Say Jim had last month ceased to be a substantial shareholder of the group, which had triggered a selldown in Iris shares, bringing the counter to an 11-year low of 10.5 sen on Dec 27.

It is understood that Tan, who was appointed to the board of directors on June 30, 1996, has been on leave since Nov 1, 2016. In his absence, Hamdan had assumed the leading role, taking charge of the group's operations.

At 12.30pm today, Iris was unchanged at 13 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM292.39 million.