MACC nabs senior Immigration officer
ALOR STAR: Over a period of a year, a senior Immigration Department officer is alleged to have accumulated more than RM20 million as inducement for the approval of expatriate passes to bring skilled and professional workers into the country.
The 37-year-old man, who is the Padang Besar Immigration chief, allegedly received RM1,500 from agents for each of the 18,626 applicants of the passes that he approved.
However, the officer’s activities, if he had indeed committed them, came to a grinding halt about 10am on Monday when he was arrested in front of the Kedah Education Department Complex.
State Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director Datuk Mohd Fauzi Mohamad said, following the arrest, antigraft officers raided the man’s house in Jitra and seized four luxury cars, a high-powered motorcycle, luxury bags and watches worth more than RM1.5 million.
He said MACC officers also froze RM1 million found in a fixed deposit account believed to be linked to the case.
Fauzi said the commission also arrested the suspect’s close friends — a 34-year-old Immigration officer in Padang Besar and a 48-year-old contractor in Jalan Langgar — who were believed to have abetted the man.
“The three men were arrested following a tip-off on the officer’s activities allegedly committed in 2015 while serving as the head of the Expatriate Services Division in Putrajaya,” he said at the state MACC office here yesterday.
Fauzi said initial investigations showed that the expatriate passes were for various professions involving foreigners from various countries.
He said the commission was still investigating the roles of the two accomplices.
Fauzi said MACC obtained remand orders to detain the men for a week yesterday.
Investigations are being conducted under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act 2009 for bribery.
The trio could face a maximum jail time of 20 years and a fine not less than five times the graft value, if convicted.