Five, Including A Datuk, Charged With Illegal Deposit Taking

SHAH ALAM, July 1 (Bernama) -- Five individuals, including a woman with the title of ‘Datuk’, were charged with taking deposits without a valid license and money laundering for four years at a Sessions Court today.

Datuk Suhaila Semaru, 41, her sister, Suraya Semaru, 37, brothers Muhammad Wahbah Az-Zuhaili Mohd Ariffin, 33, Muhammad Syaabil Ajwad Mohd Ariffin, 26, and Mohamad Noor Syauqi Shafiee, 30, plead not guilty and requested for trial when the charges were read to them separately in front of Judge Muhamad Anas Mahadzir.

Suhaila as XFOX Market Sdn Bhd director faces 22 counts of receiving, obtaining and owning an estimated RM13 from the illegal activities, while Suraya as chief executive officer faces 10 charges of obtaining, owning and transferring a total of RM11.1 million in funds.

Mohamad Noor Syauqi is charged with obtaining and owning RM2.5 million from illegal activities, Muhammad Wahbah Az-Zuhaili faces seven charges of receiving, obtaining and using RM10.3 million, while Syaabil Ajwad faces seven charges of receiving and one charge of disposing of RM58 million of funds from illegal activities.

They allegedly committed the offences under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, punishable under subsection 4(1) of the same Act, at various bank branches around Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya and Subang between November 2021 and July last year.

At the same proceeding, Suhaila, Suraya and Mohamad Noor Syauqi pleaded not guilty to another charge of agreeing to accept deposits from the public without a valid licence.

They are charged with committing the offence at the XFOX office in Subang Bestari from Nov 12, 2021 to July 30, 2024, under subsection 137(1) of the Financial Services Act 2013, read together with subsection 249(1)(a) and punishable under Section 137(2) of the same Act.

The prosecution, led by Nurdeenie Abd Rashid and Megat Mahathir Megat Tharih Afendi, suggested RM1 million in bail for all the accused with the condition that they surrender their passports while lawyer Mohd Haziq Dhiyaudin Razali requested a reduction, pointing out that his clients cooperated fully with Bank Negara Malaysia during the investigation and had no risk of flight.

Muhamad Anas allowed bail of RM100,000 for each of the accused with the condition of one surety and that their passports would be surrendered till the end of the case and set case re-mention for Aug 6.

-- BERNAMA