SHAH ALAM (Sept 24): A former director of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd, Datuk Yap Wee Leong, has been brought to the Sessions Court here and is facing nine counts each for money laundering and deceiving a principal Maybank officer, over progress claim documents which were allegedly faked for payment submitted to Maybank Islamic, resulting in payments being disbursed.
Yap, 68, is charged with nine counts of deceiving a principal Maybank officer of RM220.727 million by producing progress claim documents that are allegedly fake, resulting in the bank disbursing the funds. He also faces nine counts of money laundering of a total sum of RM388.342 million from CIMB. The money was moved from Maybank to CIMB, before then being withdrawn and put into other company accounts.
The former director claimed trial to all the charges read to him by the court interpreter before Shah Alam Sessions Court judge Datuk Mohd Nasir Nordin.
Yap is charged with deceiving the Maybank Section 14, Petaling Jaya branch officer, resulting in these funds to be disbursed:
- A sum of RM20.405 million where the Progress Claim No 5 document from Golden Base Construction Sdn Bhd was produced to Maybank on Nov 11, 2017;
- A sum of RM22.217 million where the Progress Claim No 6 document from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on Nov 9, 2017;
- A sum of RM27.750 million where the Progress Claim No 7 document from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on Nov 23, 2017;
- A sum of RM27.485 million where the Progress Claim No 8 document from Golden Base Construction was produced on Jan 10, 2018;
- A sum of RM27.962 million where the Progress Claim No 9 from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on Feb 6, 2018;
- A sum of RM28.461 million where the Progress Claim No 10 from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on Feb 21, 2018;
- A sum of RM27.485 million where the Progress Claim No 11 from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on March 26, 2018;
- A sum of RM22.885 million where the Progress Claim No 12 from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank on May 3, 2018; and
- A sum of RM16.073 million where the Progress Claim No 13 from Golden Base Construction was produced to Maybank of June 26, 2018.
All of Yap’s deceiving charges of the Maybank officer were made under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, where, if convicted, he could face a maximum of 20 years’ jail and a fine of five times the amount procured or claimed.
He also faces nine counts of money laundering under Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA):
- A sum of RM72.647 million from CIMB Bank Bhd, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to Villa Hubs Sdn Bhd between June 21 and Dec 27, 2017;
- A sum of of RM75.428 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account that entered into Jade Centennial Sdn Bhd’s account between June 21 and Dec 27, 2017;
- A sum of RM18.846 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account that entered Bidang Bakat Sdn Bhd between Nov 1 and Dec 5, 2017;
- A sum of RM56.736 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to Bidang Bakat’s account between Jan 3 and May 25, 2018;
- A sum of RM35.612 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to Villa Hubs between Jan 25 and June 26, 2018;
- A sum of RM48.292 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to Jade Centennial between Jan 25, 2018 and June 26, 2018;
- A sum of RM21.272 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to his own CIMB account on Jan 23, 2018;
- A sum of RM33.133 million from CIMB Bank, Kajang, from Golden Base Construction's account to his own CIMB account between Feb 14, 2018 and July 26, 2018; and
- A sum of RM26.276 million from CIMB Bank’s Golden Base Construction account to his own CIMB account between March 16 and Aug 3, 2018.
If convicted, Yap stands to face a maximum 15 years’ jail and a fine of not less than five times the sum of the proceeds of an unlawful activity or instrumentalities of an offence at the time the offence was committed or RM5 million, whichever is higher.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ahmad Akram Gharib led the team of prosecutors, while lawyer Abdul Hakeem Aiman appeared for Yap.
Earlier this month, Yap was charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court before judge Rosli Ahmad with 17 counts of forgery involving RM314.5 million in false claims for the unfinished Maju Expressway extension from Putrajaya to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
On Wednesday’s session, Ahmad Akram asked that the bail conditions applied in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court’s case be applied here, and for these cases to be transferred to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court. Abdul Hakeem said he had no objections.
Following this, Nasir allowed the transfer, and fixed Nov 3 for Yap’s case to be mentioned before Rosli.