KUALA LUMPUR – A company director has claimed trial to a charge of offering bribes worth RM7.5 million to former communications and multimedia minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa in a bid to secure favours relating to the Kuala Lumpur Tower concession.
Hydroshoppe Sdn Bhd director, Datuk Abdul Hamid Shaikh Abdul Razak Shaikh, 49, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read out to him in the sessions court before judge Suzana Hussin here today.
The charge states that he promised Annuar an annual inducement of RM500,000 for 15 years in exchange for speeding up the management takeover of KL Tower by Hydroshoppe.
Hamid Shaikh allegedly committed the crime in July and August last year at the Communications and Multimedia Ministry in Putrajaya, where he also offered to pay the monies through a middleman, a Datuk Tan Ser Lay.
The charge was framed under Section 16(b)(B) and Section 24(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act.
If found guilty, he faces an imprisonment term of up to twenty years, a fine of not less than five times the sum of the gratification given, or a maximum fine of RM10,000, whichever is higher.
Hamid Shaikh was allowed RM50,000 bail by Suzana, who also ordered him to surrender his passport to the court and report to the MACC office in KL once every two months, beginning in May, until the conclusion of his case.
The judge then set June 2 for case mention.
The director was represented by Shu Ivy from Chetan Jethwani & Co while deputy public prosecutor Mahadi Abdun Jumaat appeared for the prosecution.
Prior to this, MACC had been investigating allegations over the sale of shares and take-over of the KL Tower operations and maintenance concession from Menara Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd (MKLSB), a company wholly owned by Telekom Malaysia (TM), to Hydroshoppe.
The transfer of MKLSB’s 10 million shares was recorded to have taken place on October 31, during Annuar’s tenure as communications and multimedia minister.
The transfer had allegedly occurred despite KL Tower making a hefty RM66 million annual revenue and recording RM25 million in net profit in 2019.
Last year, Annuar claimed that his former ministry or the government had never taken part in any such deal, which he noted only involved a public-listed company, namely TM.
His successor, Communication and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzi, then said the new government viewed the issue seriously and would closely monitor the matter. – The Vibes, April 5, 2023
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