Wednesday December 23, 2009
Family in the dock over RM60mil money-laundering charges
By M. MAGESWARI
KUALA LUMPUR: A Datuk and his two daughters — all officers of a travel agency — pleaded not guilty to a total of 360 money-laundering charges involving RM60mil.
Datuk Adzhar Sulaiman, 54, faced 28 counts while his daughters – Noradzma, 33, and Noradzrin, 24, – faced 166 counts each at a Sessions Court here yesterday.
Noradzma is Noradz Travel and Services Sdn Bhd company director while Noradzrin, a Universiti Teknologi Mara final year business management undergraduate, is the agency’s officer.
They were accused of committing the offences at various banks between Aug 14 in 2007 and Jan 6 this year.
The father and daughters were alleged to have used the money from illegal proceeds to buy insurance coverage and various investment products, 38 lots of land in Perak and Pahang, and transferred the sum into the accounts of Noradz’s subsidiaries.
If convicted, each of them could be fined up to RM5mil or jailed a maximum term of five years or both under the Anti Money-Laundering Act.
Adzhar and Noradzma also face a separate charge each for illegal deposit-taking while holding their respective positions in the family-owned firm, said to have been committed at the company premises at Pandan Jaya between July 2006 and October last year.
If found guilty, each of them could be jailed up to 10 years or fined a maximum of RM10mil or both under the Banking and Financial Institution Act.
DPP Dzulkifli Ahmad urged the court to set bail at RM1mil each in one surety, saying that the offences are non-bailable and serious.
Lead counsel Abdul Rahim Sinwan, pleading for lower bail, said his clients’ assets amounting to RM52mil had been frozen since October last year.
He said his clients’ had been to Bank Negara 30 times to resolve the matter and had co-operated with the central bank throughout the investigations.
When Abdul Rahim requested for the prosecution to release the frozen assets, DPP Dzulkifli said it would be “tantamount to another money laundering” if these were used to post bail, causing the court to break into laughter.
Sessions Court judge S.M. Komathy Suppiah granted bail at RM1mil in one surety for each accused.
Judge Komathy also ordered them to report to the Pandan Indah police station every month and ordered them to surrender their passports to the court.
DPP Dzulkifli and Bank Negara prosecuting officer Alvin Ong also applied for a joint trial application on grounds that it involved the same witnesses and documents.
The judge allowed for the joint trial and set Feb 18 for mention.
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