SHAH ALAM, March 13 — Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today pleaded not guilty to yet another money-laundering charge — this time involving RM5 million of funds of alleged illegal origins, which brings the total number of charges against him to seven.
At around 9am this morning, Muhyiddin was charged under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
He claimed trial to the money-laundering offence, where he was alleged of having received RM5 million in alleged proceeds from unlawful activities from Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd which was deposited into Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s AmBank account.
He was alleged to have committed the offence at AmBank’s Amcorp Mall branch on January 7, 2022.
The Section 4(1)(b) offence which Muhyiddin was accused of was read together with Section 87(1) of the same anti money laundering law.
Under Section 87(1), when an offence is committed by a body corporate or an association, a person – who is its director, controller, officer, partner or concerned in the management of its affairs — is considered to have committed the offence, unless the person proves that the offence was committed without his consent and he had exercised diligence to prevent the offence.
If convicted for the money laundering offence under Section 4(1)(b), the penalty is a jail term that can go up to 15 years and a fine not less than five times the sum of the alleged illegal funds or RM5 million, whichever is higher.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib applied for the bail conditions which were previously imposed by the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur to also be used for this case, namely RM2 million bail with two sureties and for his passport to be surrendered to the court.
Akram also applied for today's case to be transferred from the Sessions Court in Shah Alam to the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, as there are already six charges there against Muhyiddin.
Muhyiddin's defence team led by lawyer Datuk K. Kumaraendran did not object to the two requests made by the prosecution.
Sessions Court judge Rozilah Salleh allowed the previous RM2 million bail which Muhyiddin had paid for his six charges in Kuala Lumpur to be used as bail for today’s charge, and said all other bail conditions would also be the same.
This means that Muhyiddin did not have to pay any additional money to secure his bail in today's case.
Rozilah also allowed this case to be transferred from the Shah Alam courts to the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Walking out minutes after he had been charged, Muhyiddin merely told the media who were waiting at the lobby of the Shah Alam court complex that he had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial and that the judge had agreed to transfer the case to the Kuala Lumpur courts.
The Perikatan Nasional chairman then left in a convoy of cars shortly before 9.20am.
Last Friday, Muhyiddin claimed trial to six charges in the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, namely four corruption charges and two money laundering charges.
Muhyiddin was accused of four counts under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act for alleged abuse of power as then prime minister and president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia for a total of RM232.5 million in alleged bribes from three companies and one individual (Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Mamfor Sdn Bhd, Azman Yusoff) for his party during March 2020 to August 2021 period. The penalty upon conviction is a maximum 20-year jail term, and a fine of not less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
The remaining two counts were for alleged money-laundering of a total of RM195 million of proceeds from illegal funds from the company Bukhary Equity Sdn. Bhd, Muhyiddin accused of having as Bersatu president received and deposited the funds into Bersatu’s CIMB bank account in 2021 and 2022 at CIMB's Menara KL branch. The penalty upon conviction is a maximum 15-year jail term and a fine of RM5 million or not less than five times the amount involved, whichever is higher.
These cases will next come up for mention at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur on May 26.
