Former IIB Vice President Fined RM30,000 For Bribery
JOHOR BAHARU, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Former Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB) vice president Mohamad Hanafiah Abu Mansor was fined RM30,000, in default three months' jail by the Sessions Court here today for accepting a bribe of RM25,000, four years ago.
Judge Mohamad Haldar Abdul Aziz handed the sentence after Mohamad Hanafiah, 48, who was represented by counsel Azrul Zulkifli Stork (rpt:Stork), pleaded guilty to an alternative charge.
Mohamad Hanafiah, who was then IIB vice president and Medini Iskandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, was accused of receiving a bribe of RM25,000 from Mohd Zulkifli Arif at the car park area behind IIB's office in Danga Bay, Jalan Skudai here in early January 2010.
The accused, who is currently the chief executive officer at JP Logistics Sdn. Bhd, was charged under section 165 of the Penal Code for the alternative charge, which carries a jail term of not more than two years or fine or both upon conviction.
On October 24 last year, Mohamad Hanafiah had pleaded not guilty in the same court to two charges of bribery involving a project valued at RM2.7 million for the proposed construction and completion of the Kampung Sungai Pendas alternative logistics road in connection with the development of Medini Iskandar Malaysia.
He was then charged under Section 16 (a) (A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009 which provides for jail up to 20 years and fine up to five times the corrupt amount or RM10,000, whichever is higher, if convicted.
In pleading for leniency, Mohamad Hanafiah said he was remorseful and had realised his mistake.
He said he was also sacked from his job and had heavy family responsibilities to fend for his wife and four children.
However, deputy public prosecutor from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Noor Fazlin Hamdan asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence.
-- BERNAMA
It's a continuation of the Iskandar Malaysia corruption saga which origins you may read at the links here, Judge Mohamad Haldar Abdul Aziz handed the sentence after Mohamad Hanafiah, 48, who was represented by counsel Azrul Zulkifli Stork (rpt:Stork), pleaded guilty to an alternative charge.
Mohamad Hanafiah, who was then IIB vice president and Medini Iskandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, was accused of receiving a bribe of RM25,000 from Mohd Zulkifli Arif at the car park area behind IIB's office in Danga Bay, Jalan Skudai here in early January 2010.
The accused, who is currently the chief executive officer at JP Logistics Sdn. Bhd, was charged under section 165 of the Penal Code for the alternative charge, which carries a jail term of not more than two years or fine or both upon conviction.
On October 24 last year, Mohamad Hanafiah had pleaded not guilty in the same court to two charges of bribery involving a project valued at RM2.7 million for the proposed construction and completion of the Kampung Sungai Pendas alternative logistics road in connection with the development of Medini Iskandar Malaysia.
He was then charged under Section 16 (a) (A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009 which provides for jail up to 20 years and fine up to five times the corrupt amount or RM10,000, whichever is higher, if convicted.
In pleading for leniency, Mohamad Hanafiah said he was remorseful and had realised his mistake.
He said he was also sacked from his job and had heavy family responsibilities to fend for his wife and four children.
However, deputy public prosecutor from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Noor Fazlin Hamdan asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence.
-- BERNAMA
Stormy weather again at Iskandar
Mohamad Hanafiah, better known as Ben Hanafiah started at IIB as an assistant vice-president and within three years was made Medini CEO by the Khazanah's board of directors.
IIB is Khazanah's investment arm for Iskandar Malaysia.
I guess, the Khazanah BoD members never checked the guy's background properly as if they had done so, they would not had promoted him so rapidly. This Ben fella has some unsavory track records concerning wheeling and dealings in the past which left some State government officials red faced.
Unless of course that is if members of the Khazanah BoD themselves had some interests to be gained from Ben's rapid ascends in IIB.
For that, someone should ask Datuk Ganen Sarvanathan, who is the executive director of investment of Khazanah who answer directly to managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar.
Ganen was the Khazanah's point man in IIB at the time when the corruption scandal broke.
Ben was close with Ganen and almost all Khazanah people who had works at IIB. He used to be the golfing buddy of many of these Khazanah people and would without fail accompanied the golfers among them for a round at the course whenever they came down to JB at that time.
Now, the court decision on Ben's case had baffled some of those familiar with the case.They feel that the court had been too lenient on him.
They believe a deal had been struck between Ben and the prosecutors and that he will turn witness against his former boss at IIB, Arlida Ariff who may face a bigger corruption charge soon.
Arlida's husband was charged more than two years ago with a spate of corruption charges.
My sources indicated that the authorities are closing in on Arlida, who at the moment was said to be working in the Middle East.
But then there is this suggestion by my friend Ai who was an active Johor-based blogger at the time the scandal broke,
The big fishes are not just in the south la
It will be interesting to see if the authorities will just go after Arlida or go all the way to Khazanah in their investigation.
As Ai had demanded, there should be
No scapegoat in Iskandar Investment case
There so much talk about ill played in Iskandar and Khazanah National ada Najib kesah , may be he think the rakyat are as dumb as him ,'know nothing' or he might think that without the consultant how can the rakyat knows .
ReplyDeleteWhat Najib failed to realize what going on in Khazanah and Iskandar has become a common talks in the ' warong kampong ' ,never assume that the Malay support to UMNO in PRU13 are going to be there again .
Orang kampong tahu , mungkin ahli UMNO tak tahu.
ahli biasa pun tahu tapi tak jadi wakil semasa pemilihan, so tak bolih buat apa2 lah.
DeleteI complained somewhere before about the designations of the various glorified posts in this stupid Iskandar setup. President lah, Vice President lah , Asst Vice President lah, whereas their jobs are like any other manager, assistant manager, deputy manager and so forth. True to its name this guy is really the assistant to the greater vices that have yet to be surfaced.
ReplyDeleteif that is so, go after them lah but the problem is we need witnesses and proof. the giver is not coming up with it , itu yangsusah beb.
Delete30K fine for accepting 25K. Not bad eh! I have no idea what is the bribe % cut in the GLC, but a wild guest of 5% makes the bribed project worth half a million. That is the tip of the iceberg. God knows much much money is being mismanaged by our super competent KPI high achievers in GLCs?
ReplyDeleteMACC is only going after the ikan bilis. What happened to the big guns. Were they so clever that they can hide all the evidences?
ReplyDeleteIt takes time. USA took over 50 years to bring the whole mafia syndicate down. The big bosses never do the dirty work. They just give instruction. How are you going to prove anything with verbal command?
ReplyDeleteShaytan fuels our Anxiety:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5snbB-6IkU8&list=PL57A71651063EB9C1
PM KNOWS WHAT MALAYSIA NEEDS. Reading about Arlida here then watching her on Youtube, I feel people like her are assets to the country. But do you thinking the bulk of our students could ever be like the Japanese or South Koreans?
ReplyDeletePEKAN: Malaysians in general still lack strong will and fighting spirit to strive for success, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Citing Japan and South Korea as examples, Najib said despite having no natural resources, both countries were now developed nations and economically advanced due to their human capital development.
“Recently, I watched a programme showing why South Koreans were so successful.
“Their students attended school in the morning, go for extra classes in the afternoon, do revision at night and slept only after 11pm.
“Because of this commitment, they succeeded without even having a drop of oil in their soil,” he said in his speech during the presentation of incentives to 615 students who excelled in UPSR and PMR examinations in the Pekan parliamentary constituency at SM Seri Pekan here.
Citing another example, Najib, who is the Pekan MP, said the success of Samsung brand today was because of its emphasis on education and human capital development.
“This is the difference between mediocre achievements and extraordinary feat,” he said.
Aha! One thing Najib forgot to mention. Malaysia education system is all about memorising fact, recalling it during exam and spotting questions in order to achieve excellent grades. Its not about using understanding the facts and explore how it can be made useful.
Delete