Malaysia launches probe into Srinivasan’s Johor startup school

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysian authorities have launched an immigration probe into a school for technology startups, just months after investor Balaji Srinivasan pitched the educational facility to officials and called for policies to support the project.

The Home Ministry, which is in charge of police and immigration, said in a statement on Tuesday (Jul 14) that it’s conducting a “thorough” investigation into individuals associated with the Network School who have allegedly used secondary passports to enter the country. It also said individuals may have flouted Malaysian immigration rules based on their entry visas.

News of the probe came just hours after the state government of Johor, where the school is located, called for an investigation following claims that Israeli nationals were participating in the school using second-country passports. Israeli citizens are barred from entering Muslim-majority Malaysia because the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations.

Malaysia’s Home Ministry also said it’s working with other relevant state agencies and ministries to “check under each of their jurisdictions” regarding the school. The investigation will examine the identities and nationalities of the people involved, the validity of their travel documents, their purpose for entering Malaysia and whether they complied with visa conditions, it said.

“Strict action will be taken without any compromise” should any offences be discovered, the ministry added.

Srinivasan’s Network School is located in Johor’s Forest City – a US$100 billion development of Chinese real estate developer Country Garden Holdings. Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar owns a stake in the development.

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Launched by Srinivasan in 2024, the Network School is an ambitious bid to bring the former Coinbase Global chief technology officer’s ideas to life. In his 2022 book, The Network State: How To Start a New Country, Srinivasan describes communities capable of crowdfunding territory around the world and eventually gaining “diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.”

Malaysia’s Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo visited the school in April, during which Srinivasan positioned the school as a means to bring world class tech talent to the South-east Asian nation. BLOOMBERG