Nasi lemak seller who ran ‘kootu’ fund fined RM50,000

 

Nor Jaimah Kamaruddin pleaded guilty to the charge under the Kootu Funds (Prohibition) Act 1971. She is the first person to be charged under the law.

BUTTERWORTH: A nasi lemak seller was fined RM50,000 by the sessions court here for running a “kootu” (illegal chit fund scheme) for eight months in 2018.

Nor Jaimah Kamaruddin, 38, pleaded guilty to the charge under the Kootu Funds (Prohibition) Act 1971 for running the scheme with five others.

She was accused of organising the kootu via Facebook between January and August 2018, with a prosecutor telling reporters that the scheme had raised “over RM100,000”.

Lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind asked the court to spare Jaimah from jail time and impose a reasonable fine, saying she was a first time offender.

He said Jaimah was also a mother of three children aged four to eight and made a living by selling nasi lemak.

“While she has pleaded guilty, she has not made any profit from running the kootu fund.

“By pleading guilty, she has saved the court’s time,” Shamsher said.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Iqbal Mohd Yusoff told the court that a deterrent sentence ought to be meted out of public interest.

He said the scheme had economically impacted five participants in the kootu, who were housewives.

Iqbal said there was evidence that the money for the kootu was channelled to Jaimah’s personal bank account.

Sessions court judge Norhayati Mohamad Yunus fined Jaimah RM50,000, in default a year in jail. She paid the fine.

Iqbal, who was prosecuting on behalf of the Companies Commission, said Jaimah was the first person to be charged under the 1971 law, which had its penalties enhanced in 2011 to a RM500,000 fine and/or 10 years in jail.

In Jaimah’s case, he said only five persons had come forward to lodge reports against her, with losses totalling over RM100,000, he told reporters. - FMT