By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, April 9: A former financial administrative assistant of a government agency here has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, fined RM180 million, and ordered to receive three strokes of the cane by the Sessions Court after pleading guilty to 39 charges related to money laundering and criminal breach of trust involving over RM16 million.
The accused, Mohd Zairull Arzuan Mohd Shamsuddin Ja’afar @ Ang Chui Thong, 39, was convicted today under 36 counts of money laundering offences committed between 2020 and 2022, amounting to more than RM6.013 million.
These charges were brought under Subsection 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Act 613), which carries a penalty under Subsection 4(1) of the same act.
Judge Musli Ab Hamid imposed a 12-year prison term and a RM5 million fine or one month’s jail in default for each of the 36 counts, all of which are to run concurrently.
On top of that, Zairull also faced three charges under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust.
These offences, committed between 2019 and 2021, involved misappropriating RM10.272 million. For each charge, he received an additional 12-year jail sentence and one stroke of the cane. These sentences will also run concurrently with the rest of his imprisonment.
The case came to light after suspicious salary transactions were discovered in his payroll records, revealing that over RM4 million had been credited into his salary account, far exceeding what he should have earned.
Zairull, who was in charge of managing salary simulations for the agency in Sarawak, tendered his resignation effective January 31, 2022. However, he cut short his notice period and officially left the post on December 31, 2021.
The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Wan Nur Amanina Wan Din, Mohd Ashrof Kamarul, and Manjira Vasudevan. Zairull was represented by lawyer Christopher Bada. – DayakDaily
