KUALA LUMPUR: A 62-year-old ‘Datuk’, who was charged with accepting deposits illegally at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court last week, has been taken to the Ampang courts today to face similar charges.
Datuk Yap Yee Hoo, a former director of the Royal Gold Sdn Bhd - a gold investment company - was slapped with 11 charges for accepting illegal deposits and misappropriating money amounting to more than RM1.1 million four years ago.
Clad in a blue shirt and black pants, the accused was calmed when ushered into a Sessions Court and magistrate’s courts here at 10.30am.
At the first magistrate’s court, Yap was charged with three counts of misappropriating RM158,000 belonging to businessman Tan Kim Seng, 62, for a gold investment business under Royal Gold Sdn Bhd.
He pleaded not guilty when the charges were read by a translator before magistrate Haslinda A. Raof.
The offence was allegedly committed at the CIMB Bank's Pandan Indah branch between June 13 and Sept 2, 2014.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Raihanah Abdul Razak when prosecuting asked the court to impose RM60,000 bail for all the charges.
However, counsel T. L Chen, who represent the accused, pleaded for minimum bail citing that his client had given full cooperation during police investigation.
Yap also claimed trial before magistrate Mohamad Firdaus Sadina Ali when he faces six counts of similar offence involving two victims between Jan 15 and Oct 9, 2014.
The accused was alleged to have misappropriated RM179,200 and RM216,000 belong to Tan and Siow Geok Meng, 55, respectively.
Deputy Public Prosecutor M.Arunjothy asked the court to impose RM90,000 bail for all charges.
The courts set RM15,000 and RM30,000 bails with one surety respectively and fixed April 5 for mention.
All the offences fall under Section 403 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of not less than six months and not more than five years with whipping or fine, upon conviction.
At the Sessions Court, Yap was slapped with two counts for accepting more than RM500,000 in taking deposits illegally from two victims at the same place between Jan 15 and Oct 9, 2014.
Judge Azrul Darus set bail at RM38,000 for all charges when the accused claimed trial for the offence.
He was charged with accepting RM337,200 and RM216,000 in deposits without license from Tan and Siow respectively for the gold investment scheme.
The charges under Section 137(1) of the Financial Services Act 2013 carry up to 10 years' jail or up to a RM50 million fine, or both, upon conviction.
The court fixed April 5 for mention.
On Friday, Yap pleaded not guilty for accepting RM516,700 in deposits illegally from two investors at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
He was also charged with misappropriating a gold bar worth RM220,000 and RM446,700, which was obtained from the company’s clients.