Malaysia shutters US tycoon's under-fire digital nomad campus

Malaysian authorities ordered on Tuesday the closure of a start-up campus founded by US investor Balaji Srinivasan, saying the site -- already the focus of an immigration probe -- was in breach of regulations.

The Network School founder announced last week he was freezing investment projects in Malaysia after authorities had raided the campus serving hundreds of digital nomads to investigate claims that it was hosting foreigners illegally.

Onn Hafiz Ghazi, chief minister of Johor state where the campus is located, said a local municipality had revoked Network School's business licence and ordered it to cease operations effective Wednesday.

One Network School site was operating without a licence and another "carrying out activities different from those allowed under its office-use permit", according to the Iskandar Puteri City Council.

"When non-compliance is identified, action must be taken without compromise," Onn Hafiz said in a statement.

Network School was not available for comment.

Authorities raided the campus last week after unsubstantiated online claims it was flouting immigration rules.

The allegations centred on accusations that Israelis with dual citizenship were being allowed to work there.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has no diplomatic ties with Israel and bars entry to Israeli passport holders, but does not have specific laws about second-country passport holders.

Srinivasan, a former Coinbase senior executive, said Malaysian officials had inspected "hundreds of passports" at his nearly $25 million development, a residential campus for startup founders, software engineers, investors and digital entrepreneurs.

He said that authorities confirmed all travel documents were in order.

After the raid, Srinivasan announced he was freezing all projects in the Southeast Asian nation "until we get sufficient assurance that such issues won't recur".

Onn Hafiz said on Tuesday that his state, which bordering Singapore, "always welcomes high-quality investments".

But "no investor, company or organisation can be placed above sovereignty of the country's law", he said.

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Coinbase