LCS scandal: Former MD charged with three counts of CBT

 

Former high-ranking officer of Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor has been charged with criminal breach of trust at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today.

BNS was the contractor tasked to build six littoral combat ships (LCS) for the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The 78-year-old accused is the former BNS managing director and vice-executive chairperson.

He is charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving RM21.08 million under Section 409 of the Penal Code.

The CBT charge under Section 409 of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine.

Ramli appeared before the court at 9am and pleaded not guilty to all three charges read out before judge Susana Hussein.

Earlier this month, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its report revealed a huge overrun in cost amounting to RM1.4 billion in the RM9 billion LCS contract, with RM6 billion paid as of 2020.

Despite the government having paid such a huge amount, none of the ships has been completed after eight years. The project was started in 2014.

The report also implicated Ramli, who served as the LCS steering committee chairperson, with his name being mentioned several times.

Following this, the MACC on Aug 11 reportedly said they had completed several investigations on individuals linked to the alleged misappropriation in handling the LCS construction projects.

The charges

For the first charge, Ramli is accused of fraudulently approving three different transactions amounting to RM13,541,140 from July 26, 2010, to March 25, 2011.

The transaction was allegedly sent to an account belonging to Syarikat Setaria Holding Limited at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

On the second count, Ramli was accused of fraudulently approving a payment - amounting to RM1,360,716 - to JSD Corporation Pte Ltd at the Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, in Singapore.

For the third and final charge, he is accused of fraudulently approving a payment amounting to RM6,182,295 to Sousmarin Armada Ltd at Standard Chartered Bank, 6 Battery Road in Singapore between the dates of Oct 28, 2010, and Nov 22 that same year.

All three transactions were said to have taken place without the company board's approval.

Further, all offences were alleged to have taken place at BNS, 17th Floor, Menara Boustead, 69 Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur.

The events allegedly took place between July 26, 2010, and May 4, 2011.

Notably, all three banks involved in the offending transactions are of Singaporean origin.

The charges are believed to be linked to the ongoing LCS case.

RM500k bail

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib sought for the court to set RM500,000 bail against the accused.

Laywer Mohd Yusof Zainal Abidin, who is representing Ramli, did not oppose the proposed amount.

The court set bail at RM500,000 with RM200,000 security and fixed Nov 24 for mention. Ramli was also ordered to surrender his passport until the completion of his case.

Ramli had served in the Royal Malaysian Navy for 35 years and was named navy chief in October 1996. He retired in 1998.

He was later appointed to the Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd Board on Aug 17, 2005. He resigned from the board on Nov 30, 2019. - Mkini