KOTA KINABALU: The son of a politician was charged at the Special Corruption Court here today with impersonating as a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) senior officer.
Aries Ryan Phillip Among, 29, pleaded not guilty to two main and alternative charges, respectively, before Sessions Court judge Jason Juga.
On the first main charge, Aries was charged with cheating Mohd Zaidi Abdullah, 60, by personating as MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner (Operations) Datuk Seri Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya through WhatsApp on June 24, 2023 at 11.46am at a house in Perumahan Desa Aman, police headquarters here in Jalan Kepayan.
He had allegedly induced Zaidi to deposit RM8,000 into a bank account belonging to another person for a sacrificial cow donation.
On the second charge, Aries was accused of cheating Zaidi by impersonating as MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki, also through WhatsApp on June 30, 2023 at 11.22am, at the same location.
Aries had allegedly induced Zaidi to bank in RM27,000 for a donation to attend Azam's son's convocation in Sydney, Australia, and another RM14,300 for loan purposes.
Both were deposited into two different bank accounts.
For the first and second alternative charges, Aries had allegedly cheated Zaidi through WhatsApp and induced him to bank all the money totaling RM49,300 into three different bank accounts.
Both alternative charges were made under Section 417 of the Penal Code, which provides imprisonment of up to five years or with fine or with both, upon conviction.
The court fixed Feb 14 for case management. Aries was granted bail of RM40,000, with RM5,000 to be deposited to the court with one local surety.
The court further ordered the accused to report to the MACC office once every two months; not to tamper with the prosecution witnesses, and for his passport to be impounded by the court, pending the disposal of the case.
MACC Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Izzati Sapifee prosecuted while counsel Muhamad Amirul Amin represented the accused.
Earlier, DPP proposed bail of RM40,000 and several other conditions should the court grant bail to the accused.
Amirul, however, asked for a lower bail saying among others that the accused is self-employed earning between RM1,500 and RM2,500 per month. He said Aries is married with a child and also taking care of his mother.