Confusion delays court sentencing

More time needed to verify number of money laundering charges against company

PUTRAJAYA: The sentencing of four exdirectors of a gold investment firm at the Court of Appeal here has been postponed to Feb 5, as the prosecution needs time to sort out confusion over the number of money laundering charges.

Deputy public prosecutor Hamdan Hamzah told the court that the investigating officer, who was the 42nd witness, had testified that the exdirectors of Genneva Sdn Bhd faced 760 charges.

However, he said there was no mention of it in any of the notes of evidence or in the appeal record.

“We cannot trace the figure and found the number of charges reduced to 224.

“We need time to identify which charges have been dropped,” he told the threeman panel chaired by Justice Mohtarudin Baki.

Also on the panel were Justices Zakaria Sam and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.

On Dec 12, the Court of Appeal found Ng Poh Weng, 67, Marcus Yee Yuen Seng, 65, Chin Wai Leong, 41, and Liew Chee Wah, 63, guilty of 224 counts of money laundering involving over RM100mil and five counts with the company of receiving deposits from the public without a licence.

The mitigation and sentencing of the men was previously fixed for yesterday.

Justice Abdul Karim also noted that the appeal notice and notes of evidence at the High Court and Sessions Court stated the number of charges as 224.

Earlier, Muhammad Shafee proposed for the new date to be at the end of January or early February, as Justice Zakaria would be retiring in March.

On Sept 20, 2016, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had upheld an earlier decision by the Sessions Court to acquit the men after ruling that the investment company was only carrying out physical buying and selling, and there was no evidence to show that it had accepted deposits from the public illegally.

The prosecution then filed an appeal.

The men were charged with committing the money laundering offences at a premise in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, between July 2008 and June 2009, and the illegal deposittaking offences at the company’s premises in Jalan Kuchai Maju 6, Kuala Lumpur, between Nov 2008 and July 2009. — Bernama

We need time to identify which charges have been dropped. Hamdan Hamzah