More dirt revealed on ‘violent’ 6P agents

New allegations of fraud have surfaced against a government-appointed '6P agent' company which was previously accused of exploiting and physically abusing foreign workers

PETALING JAYA: More incriminating evidence has surfaced about a local company appointed by the government as an agent under the 6P amnesty programme, weeks after the same outfit was exposed in CCTV footages to have allegedly assaulted several foreign workers.

Investigations by the Selangor Anti-Human Trafficking Council (Mapmas) together with FMT have revealed that the company, SNT Universal Corporation Sdn Bhd, may have acted beyond its supposed duties of registering foreign labour to have deceived, not only the foreign workers, but also the authorities.

The deception, according to Mapmas task force member and activist Abdul Aziz Ismail, involved the setting up of more than a dozen companies which act as “bogus employers”.

These “bogus employers”, he explained, were companies with no proper business infrastructure, and were formed for the sole purpose of obtaining fraudulent work permits for foreign workers under the 6P programme.

FMT saw documents, including several company searches from Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), which showed that the same few individuals who ran and owned SNT Universal Corporation were behind at least 10 other companies. Most of them were set up between 2011 and 2012.

Among the same owners and directors, one of the recurring names in these companies was that of one “Md. Shahidul Islam”, supposedly of a Bangladeshi man called “Babul”.

He was the same man who was named in a police report in regard to the previous cheating and assault case.

(Authorities have yet to explain why a foreigner is able to run a 6P “management” company, which is prohibited by the Home Ministry under the 6P programme.)

“Basically, the same people have more than a dozen companies. These are quite simply what we term as bogus employers. These are companies that, in reality, don’t really need workers. Instead, they are formed just to victimise them,” said Abdul Aziz.

He said that from the hundreds of foreign workers he spoke to who have been enlisted in these same companies, the same “bogus employers” are supposedly involved in a variety of businesses, including property and construction, agriculture and plantation, services, and factory.

“But from my checks on these companies, both at the SSM and local authorities, none of them are actually involved in these businesses. They neither have the proper audited report, or the licences for these respective industries,” alleged Abdul Aziz.

He said with the absence of those audited reports and licences, the companies do not qualify the requirements set by the Home Ministry as a proper employers.

“It is also very strange that the same set of individuals and proxies are running so many kinds of businesses, don’t you think?”

“That is because they are setting up all these companies with the sole objective of obtaining these fake permits for these foreign workers. When the workers are being arrested for not having the proper documents, they force them to pay RM1,000 to RM2,000 so that they can help them settle, because they are the ones holding their passports. They basically hold these workers at ransom,” he said.

A check on a previously publicly available list of government-appointed 6P agents found SNT Universal Corporation to be on the list.

Inside help

Meanwhile, a 6P agent familiar with the processes told FMT that given the facts of this case, the company in question would most likely need a “jalan” or inside help from government authorities for their supposed modus operandi to work.

“The criteria the government has are supposedly quite strict. Appointed 6P agent cannot be foreigners themselves,” the source said.

“And as for employers, they should have the yearly audited reports. If they are really registering workers with these companies, it must have gone through back-door approvals. These are one of the scams that has been going. These are the rentseekers.”

(Under the 6P programme, illegal foreign workers will either be legalised or deported without punishment. The six Ps represent the Malay words for registration, legalisation, amnesty, monitoring, enforcement and deportation. Some 330 companies have been appointed to assist in the registration process.)

On Nov 5, FMT reported about two CCTV videos showing Bangladeshi workers being slapped and attacked by those allegedly from SNT Universal Corporation, based in Taman Maluri, Cheras.

The videos, exposed by Mapmas with the help of a whistleblower, showed victims who are allegedly part of a bigger group of some 200 who were cheated by the same company.

A police report was lodged over the matter. It was understood that police have picked up several individuals to assist investigations into the case.

Pix courtesy of Abdul Aziz Ismail