Four Former Bank Officers Charged With Corruption Over Personal Loan Applications

KUALA LUMPUR,  Oct 17  (Bernama) -- Four former bank officers pleaded not guilty in two Sessions Courts here today to charges of accepting bribes totalling RM177,769.39 involving personal loan applications from customers.

They are Noor Iskandar Aziz, 44, and Muhammad Najmi Mu'az Pekan, 34, who are now e-hailing drivers,  Amir Hafizi Anuar, 29, a salesman and Syazwan Akmal Badran, 33, an employee of a private company.

In the court before Judge Rosli Ahmad and Azura Alwi, Noor Iskandar, who was then working as a marketing officer at a bank in Putrajaya, was charged with 10 counts of accepting bribes totalling RM94,173 from CSA Infinite Consultancy Company, Ong Kim Hock, Ong Mun Ho, Lim Kim Yen and Anas Syazwan Abd Samad.

Also charged before Judge Rosi was Muhammad Najmi Mu'az, a former consumer finance executive at a bank in Shah Alam. He was charged with two counts of receiving bribes totalling RM5,567 from JWW Titans Trading and Lim.

 Amir Hafizi, 29, who was a marketing officer at a bank in Kajang, was charged with seven counts of receiving bribes totalling RM37,347.76 from CSA Infinite Company, JZ Solution Company and Lim.

They were accused of accepting bribes as a reward for assisting in the processing of personal financing applications for customers of CSA Academy Company, who had simultaneously submitted similar applications to several other financial institutions. This resulted in the customers obtaining multiple loans that exceeded their eligibility limit.

Meanwhile, Syazwan Akmal, a former marketing officer at a bank in Petaling Jaya, pleaded not guilty before Judge Azura Alwi.

He was charged with eight counts of receiving bribes totalling RM42,681.63 from JWW Titans Company, CSA Infinite Company, Lim and JZ Solution Company for similar purposes.

All the offences were allegedly committed at Maybank and RHB Bank in Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur between Oct 5, 2021, and July 5, 2024.

The charges were framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 which provides a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of five times the amount or value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.

The court allowed Noor Iskandar, Muhammad Najmi Mu'az, Amir Hafizi and Syazwan Akmal bail of RM25,000, RM10,000, RM20,000 and RM15,000, respectively, with one surety each, with additional conditions that their passports be surrendered to the court.

They are also required to report once a month at the MACC office and not interfere with prosecution witnesses.

The court set the mention date for Noor Iskandar's case on Nov 20 and Dec 10 for the case involving Muhammad Najmi Mu'az and Amir Hafizi, while Azura set Dec 3 for the mention of Syazwan Akmal's case.

The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutors Nurul Izzati Sapifee, M.Esther Jacyntha and Nidzuwan Abd Latip, while lawyers A.Rayveni, Abdul Hakeem Aiman ​​Mohd Affandi and Humaidi Zulkifli represented the accused, except Syazwan Akmal, who was unrepresented.

-- BERNAMA