2 years jail, RM50,000 fine for ex-ROC official

2009/11/10

THE High Court in Kuala Lumpur today upheld the conviction and two months jail and RM50,000 fine imposed on a former investigating officer of the Registrar of Companies (ROC) for accepting a RM10,000 bribe to stop an investigation against a oil and gas company in 2001.

Judicial Commissioner Azman Abdullah, however, allowed Zaidi Abdul Ghani's application for a stay of execution of the sentence pending appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Azman, reduced the jail term of co-accused Datuk Baharuddin Hamzah, 34, a businessman, from two years to 18 months but affirmed the fine of RM50,000 imposed by the lower court on Feb 21, 2005.

Zaidi, 43, and Baharuddin were convicted of accepting the money from Tengku Amran Tengku Abdullah, director of Akar Korporat Sdn Bhd, to stop the oil company from being investigated under Section 363(3) of the Companies Act 1965.

They committed the offence at Flamingo Hotel, Tasik Ampang, Jalan Ampang, at about 9.30pm on Jun 13, 2001.

Azman, said that after going through the appeal records, he agreed with the Sessions Court judge's decision to impose a minimum fine of RM50,000 on Baharuddin but he reduced the jail term from two years to 18 months after taking into consideration that he was a first offender and was not in power like Zaidi, who was a civil servant when the offence was committed.

Counsel Datuk Jagjit Singh represented Baharuddin while Akbardin Abdul Kader appeared for Zaidi.

Deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais from the Malayian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) appeared for the prosecution. - Bernama