Riza Aziz, the stepson of former premier Najib Abdul Razak, was slapped with five counts of money-laundering offences at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court this morning for allegedly receiving illegal proceeds that originated from 1MDB.
According to the charges read to him before Sessions Judge Rozina Ayob, Riza had allegedly received a total of US$248 million on five occasions between 2011 and 2012.
Riza, who is the co-founder of Hollywood production company Red Granite, was accused of committing the offence by receiving the money through the company's bank account.
He was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act (Amlatfa) 2001.
Based on the details of his first charge, Riza had allegedly involved himself in a money laundering activity by receiving US$1,173,104 through a money transfer transaction from a bank account belonging to Good Star Limited between April 12 and May 12, 2011.
He was accused of committing the offence at the City National Bank in Los Angeles, California.
For his second charge, Riza was accused of receiving US$9m, also from Good Star, at the same bank between Sept 10 and Oct 10, 2012.
The third, fourth and fifth charges stated that Riza had allegedly received US$133m, US$60m and US$45m from a bank account belonging to Aabar Investments PJS Ltd.
He was accused of committing the three offences at BSI Bank Ltd at Suntec Tower 1 in Singapore on June 18, Oct 23, and Nov 14, 2012, respectively.
Under Amlatfa, anyone found guilty of committing an offence under Section 4(1)(a) of the act is punishable under Section 4(1) with a maximum of RM5m fine, or a maximum jail sentence of five years, or both.
”I plead not guilty and request for a trial, My Lord,” said Riza to all the charges read to him by the court interpreter.
He was sitting inside the accused dock, while his step-siblings Norashman Najib and Nooryana Najwa were sitting at the public gallery behind him.
Following Riza's non-guilty pleas, the prosecution led by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram offered an RM1m bail with two sureties to the accused.
Gopal (photo above) also suggested for the court to set additional conditions for Riza to surrender all his passports to the court.
To this, the lead defence counsel Hariharan Singh told the court that they have no objection to the bail but his co-counsel K Kumaraendran made an application to the court to allow for the bail to be posted on two instalments.
Kumaraendran told the court that they have raised RM500,000, and would need time to get the remaining amount and asked for permission to pay it next week.
The application was however opposed by the prosecution.
After hearing submissions from both parties, Judge Rozina then imposed RM1m bail with two sureties and on Riza, and for him to surrender his passports to the court.
On Kumaraendran's application, Rozina told the defence that they still have time to raise the remaining RM500,000 as the day was still early. -Mkini
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