KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — A businessman was charged at the Sessions Court here today with money laundering over his transfer of RM15.7 million to a former Youth and Sports Ministry official implicated in a RM100 million embezzlement case.

Abdul Gafar Abdurahiman, 42, claimed trial to the charges of making the 63 bank transactions involving money derived from unlawful activity to the ministry’s former finance division secretary Otman Arsahd.

He is accused of making these fund transfers through cheques from three companies either to Otman’s bank accounts or to pay off Otman’s credit card bills.

Abdul Gafar is the director of GPO Essence Sdn Bhd, Enconic Corporation Sdn Bhd and Gapa Jitu Sdn Bhd — which were last month named in court documents when Otman was charged with corruption.

The offences involving 62 transactions were said to have been committed from March 7, 2012 to December 11, 2015 at three separate bank outlets — an RHB Bank branch in Putrajaya, Maybank’s Raja Laut branch and Maybank’s Premier Support Credit Card outlet at Menara Maybank in Kuala Lumpur.

Of the total, 37 counts fall under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 while 25 counts fall under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities 2001.

On top of the 62 transactions, Abdul Gafar was said to have made a transfer of unlawful proceeds amounting to RM50,000 from Gapa Jitu’s CIMB account to Otman’s Maybank account through a cheque.

This offence under Section 4(1)(a) is said to have been committed between March 17 and March 19, 2014 at Maybank’s Selayang branch.

An offence committed under Section 4(1)(a) is punishable by a maximum five-year jail term or a maximum RM5 million fine or both.

The punishment for money-laundering offences under Section 4(1)(b) is up to 15 years in jail and a fine that is at least five times the sum of the unlawful activity’s proceeds or RM5 million, whichever is higher.

Sessions Court judge Mohd Nasir Nordin fixed bail at RM70,000 with one surety.

Abdul Gafar will also have to surrender his passport to the court.

Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi had initially sought bail of RM500,000 but Abdul Gafar’s lawyer Wan Azmir Wan Majid pleaded for a reduction to a “reasonable” RM25,000.

The defence lawyer told the court his client has four children aged 16 and below and all assets belonging to him, his wife and children had been frozen.

The next mention date will be on May 24.

On March 31, 57-year-old Otman Arsahd was charged with 32 counts of corruption involving RM38.5 million in federal funds through the alleged abuse of his position and submission of false documents.

The former finance division secretary in the ministry had then claimed trial to 17 charges under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009 and another 15 under Section 23(1) of the same Act.

For the Section 18 charges, Otman was accused of submitting documents with false information on 17 occasions to National Sports Council finance division director Abdul Rashid Yaakub regarding payment amounting to a total of RM36.3 million to three other companies.

The submission of these letters regarding payment through the ministry’s account in NSC was allegedly done during the period of February 28, 2012 up until November 18, 2015.

The documents contained false information on payment to three companies – Enconic Corporation Sdn Bhd, GPO Essence Sdn Bhd and Gapa Jitu Sdn Bhd – for work that were actually not carried out.

If convicted under any of the 32 counts of the corruption charges, Otman will face a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine that is at least five times the value of the gratification or RM10,000, depending which amount is higher.

Another Sessions Court judge Allaudeen Ismail today fixed Otman’s trial to start from September 19.

The prosecution intends to call in 35 witnesses.