CEO pleads not guilty to a charge of illegal deposit-taking

CEO pleads not guilty to a charge of illegal deposit-taking

The Star Online Tuesday January 26, 2010

SEREMBAN: The chief executive officer of a company involved in livestock-farming and beef-production pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court here to a charge of illegal deposit-taking activities. The charge involved a sum of more than RM70mil within a period of eight months in 2008.

Syed Shareezally Syed Aualadali, 39, who was then Eastana Farm Industries Sdn Bhd director, was charged with committing the offence between February and October at Taman Komersial Senawang, near here. Another company director A. Halim A. Rahman had already claimed trial to the same offence when he was charged on Dec 24. He was released on a RM400,000 bail.

According to the charge, Syed Shareezally allegedly accepted deposits from the public without first obtaining a licence from Bank Negara, as required under Section 6(4) of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) 1989. If found guilty, he is liable to a fine not exceeding RM10mil or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both.

Halim’s case came up for re-mention yesterday and his counsel Zorah Jan Mohd Newaz appealed to the court to reduce bail as he had to fend for his family. However, Bank Negara prosecuting officer Mohd Shukri Ahmad Mansor asked the court to rescind Halim’s bail and not to issue bail for Syed Shareezally as the amount they allegedly collected illegally was too high.

Judge Zamri Bakar ordered bail for both the accused to be set at RM300,000 with one surety each and for them to surrender their passports to the court. Zamri then set Feb 8 for re-mention to allow both the cases to be heard together. Bank Negara officers later arrested the two after they posted bail at the court registry.

It is learnt that they will be charged under section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 at the same court here. On Oct 13, 2008, Bank Negara officers raided the premises of Eastana Farm after complaints from the public that the company was allegedly collecting minimum investments of RM3,000 with promises of high returns.

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