KUALA LUMPUR – Three men pleaded not guilty at the sessions court here today to charges of submitting false claims to the Social Security Organisation (Socso) for incentives under the Penjana Kerjaya 2.0 programme in 2021.
In the first case, Datuk Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, 55, who owns Pupa International Sdn Bhd, was charged with submitting documents containing false information regarding salaries to claim incentives amounting to RM378,000.
The accused, who contested in the 15th general election under Pejuang, allegedly committed the offence at the Putrajaya Socso office on March 2 and April 2, 2021.
In the same court, the owner of Era Media Sdn Bhd, Lee Hong Rong, 23, was charged with committing the same offence at the Kuala Lumpur Socso office on April 23 and June 21, 2021, to claim incentives totalling RM1.9 million.
In another sessions court, the owner of Minbot Sdn Bhd and Fireshot Marketing Sdn Bhd, Raymond Sim, 35, pleaded not guilty to submitting false documents to claim incentives under the same programme amounting to RM153,200.
The offence was allegedly committed at the Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya Socso office between June 3 and September 15, 2021.
All the charges were framed under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.
The court allowed Mohd Ridzuan and Lee each bail at RM25,000 with one surety and ordered them to surrender their passports and report to the nearest MACC office every month. Raymond was released on RM30,000 bail with the same additional conditions.
The court also fixed March 2 and 3 and February 28, respectively, for mention of their cases.
Meanwhile, in Pahang, two traders pleaded not guilty at the Kuantan sessions court to submitting false claims for incentives under the Penjana Kerjaya 1.0 programme totalling RM43,600, three years ago.
Arabath Ali Arul Alavudeen, 36, and Mohmmed Ismail R P Mohd Ibrahim, 62, were charged with committing the offence at the Temerloh Socso office on October 5 and 6, 2020.
Judge Datuk Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain fixed bail at RM18,000 for both the accused and ordered them to surrender their passports. – Bernama, January 26, 2023
