Three former senior managers at Telekom Malaysia (USA) Inc have been charged with misappropriating over US$20 million (RM79.5 million) from the company, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said.
In a statement, it said that the indictment charging Hafiz Lockman, Yuzaimi Yusof, and Khanh Thuong Nguyen with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft was unsealed in Manhattan federal court yesterday.
"Today’s fraud charges come within weeks of receiving a self-report from the company.
"As alleged, Hafiz, Yuzaimi, and Nguyen perpetrated a sprawling fraud to steal over US$20 million. The defendants deceived counterparties, suppliers, auditors, and their own supervisors.
"As a result of the fact that the conduct was reported to this office and quickly investigated, the defendants will now be held to account for fraudulently lining their own pockets," US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said.
Wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years imprisonment.
False claims
According to the statement, the trio had also allegedly sought to claim fabricated work expenses from the company.
"For instance, in January 2026, the defendants collaborated to request reimbursement for expenses incurred for a work trip that employees of the American subsidiary supposedly made to Las Vegas in December 2025.
"In fact, no such trip occurred. When the parent company requested pictures from the trip, the defendants hastily organised a trip to Las Vegas and photographed scenes with Christmas trees to make it appear as though photographs had been taken in December," it said.
Further, the statement described the defendants' alleged scheme to misappropriate more than US$20 million, which involved selling the company's broadband capacity without authorisation and diverting the proceeds to accounts under their control.
Misappropriating 2TB
An example cited was the sale of eight terabytes of capacity to a customer for US$54 million, which was the price for six terabytes.
"After misappropriating the excess two terabytes from the parent company, the defendants sold it for their own personal benefit to third parties," the statement said.
It added that the trio allegedly impersonated a goods supplier for TM USA to capture payments from TM.
In 2021, the defendants had allegedly bought a type of cable from a supplier for about US$500,000 but falsely told the parent company it had cost around US$2.9 million.
The defendants then diverted roughly US$2.9 million to a bank account belonging to a sham company with a name designed to resemble the real supplier’s.
To cover up the scheme, they had forged documents and falsified signatures of actual supplier employees, pretending they worked for the fake entity, the statement alleged.
Payroll fraud
Besides that, it said they had allegedly carried out a payroll fraud scheme by impersonating former employees and interns of the US subsidiary and diverting their salaries into bank accounts they controlled.
In one case, they concealed an employee's 2020 departure and continued collecting the employee's salary until 2025, the statement said.
At that point, they recorded the employee's departure, causing the company's human resources department in Malaysia to request an exit interview.
"To sustain the fraud, the defendants recruited another individual to impersonate the employee during the exit interview.
"When human resources subsequently requested a video call, the defendants arranged for their imposter to disguise his appearance and bear the face of the departed employee through an artificial intelligence programme," the statement explained.
It said TM conducted an internal investigation into the US subsidiary and the defendants, uncovered the fraud, and voluntarily reported it to US prosecutors.
In return for cooperating fully, providing restitution, addressing the harm caused, and agreeing to report criminal conduct for three years, the company received a conditional declination of charges, it added. - Mkini
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