Lawyer jailed for money laundering

 

Guilty sentence: Ong (right) and Surendran arriving at the Shah Alam Sessions Court.

SHAH ALAM: A lawyer was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of eight counts of money-laundering by the Sessions Court here.

The sentence was imposed on Ong Keh Keong, 48, by judge Yang Zaimey Yang Ghazali.

Ong was initially charged in 2015 with two counts of depositing two HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd cheques that had been issued in favour of Ong Partnership, amounting to RM2.35mil, into his personal Standard Chartered Bank account.

He had also faced another charge of depositing a RM1.5mil Standard Chartered cheque from his personal account into a Public Investment Bank Bhd account.

The father of two children had also been slapped with four charges for transferring RM2.65mil from one of his Standard Chartered accounts into another one of his personal accounts in the same bank.

He was also charged with having another RM51,795.05 in one of his accounts.

Ong was accused of committing all the offences at a Standard Chartered branch in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya, between July 18,2012, and April 24,2014.

He was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001, which carries a maximum jail term of five years, RM5mil fine or both.

Earlier during proceedings, defence counsel S. Surendran urged the court to impose a lighter sentence and also asked for a deferment of imprisonment pending an appeal.

He noted Ong posted bail amounting to RM100,000.

Yang Zaimey agreed to defer the sentence with an additional bail amount of RM20,000 in one surety, besides ordering Ong to report to the nearest police station once a month. - Star