Two former Mara Corp senior officials charged with graft

KUALA LUMPUR – Two former senior Majlis Amanah Rakyat Corporation Sdn Bhd (Mara Corp) officials received five graft charges at the Kuala Lumpur sessions court today for alleged abuse of power and management impropriety.

According to the Edge, both Mara Corp former group corporate finance director Rizal Abdul Ghani and former acting group chief executive Noor Irwan Marmin pleaded not guilty to allegations that they abused their power to receive gratification.

Rizal, who was not represented by a lawyer, was charged with using his post to receive five payments from the company, with the first charge involving RM30,375 received on September 15 last year.

He was also alleged to have received RM2,625 between October and December last year and in January this year.

Noor Irwan, on the other hand, was charged with receiving RM33,093 in bribes on September 15 last year.

Both men were accused of claiming that the money served as “acting allowances” by approving an internal memo. However, the men did not gain the approval of the board of directors beforehand.

The two were charged under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Corruption Commission Act (MACC) 2009. If convicted, the duo face a maximum 20-year prison sentence or a fine of five times the amount of gratification received, or RM10,000, or whichever is higher.

Judge Susana Hussin has set August 23 for case mention.

On February 5, the MACC confirmed receiving a report on alleged integrity issues involving several senior Mara officials, who were being investigated internally by the agency before the MACC raided Mara, the Mara Corp headquarters as well as a corporate secretarial company, and seized several documents on February 7.

Over 30 witnesses have been called in to facilitate the probe involving the three senior Mara Corp officers, which the MACC wrapped up in February.

Last month, MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki denied knowledge of any move by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to drop the charges framed against three Mara senior officers

Azam said that investigators had completed their probe into the case and proposed that several parties be charged based on their findings. – The Vibes, July 21, 2022