SEVEN men and three women, two of whom are bank branch managers, were charged in the Kota Kinabalu sessions court today for being members of an organised crime group linked to missing funds totalling RM24.2 million from several bank accounts.
The accused are Josepin J. Langkan, Mazlani Jenuary, Hasran Magin, Leong Hin Ping, Subramaniam Thangavelu, Sugumaran K. Ponniah @ Mohd Daniel Abdullah, Vireonis Jonok, Iren Chin Nyuk Thien, Christina @ Caroline Pianus, and Nasir Abdul Rashid.
The suspects, aged between 37 and 62 years old, were charged separately before judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan under Section 130V (1) of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of not less than five years and not more than 20 years, upon conviction.
No pleas were recorded pending the next mention date, set for September 13.
Their pleas will only be recorded at the high court after motions have been filed by the defence lawyers.
All of them were separately accused of being members of an organised crime group involved in a serious offence to obtain a material benefit for the group led by Josepin.
They allegedly committed the offence between April 26 and July 10 at the MBSB bank branch in Kota Kinabalu.
No bail was granted to all the accused.
Deputy public prosecutor Lina Hanini Ismail and Maryam Jamielah Ab Manaff prosecuted.
Sugumaran, Nasir and Leong were defended by Dominic Chew and Ariel Dasan; Irene was represented by Mohd Al Hafidz Mohd Lokman and Luqman Syazwan Zabidi; Christina was represented by Arthur Borine; and Mazlani was represented by Datuk Marzuki Spawi. Hasran was unrepresented.
Early last month, funds totalling over RM24.2 million were allegedly siphoned from several fixed deposit accounts of MBSB Bank Bhd.
On June 21, Bernama reported that police received four reports from account holders and bank staff in early June in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, after the victims noticed suspicious cash withdrawals from their fixed deposit accounts in Kota Kinabalu.
Police then arrested a bank employee suspected of being involved in the fraudulent withdrawals of fixed deposits amounting to RM24.2 million from four accounts.
The suspect was later identified as a 38-year-old woman, who was arrested in Kota Kinabalu.
Police said all the account holders involved denied any knowledge of the transactions and said they had never been to Kota Kinabalu to make the withdrawals.
Police later detained 14 suspects, including bank officers and a “Datuk” businessman, after carrying out raids in Perlis and Sabah. – July 25, 2024
