Feb.11, 2010
A company chief executive officer claimed trial to four counts of money laundering amounting to RM6.15mil at the Sessions Court here.
Eastana Farm Management (M) Sdn Bhd CEO Syed Shareezally Syed Aualadali pleaded not guilty when the four charges were read out to him before Judge Balqis Aini Mohd Ali yesterday.
The company is involved in livestock farming and beef production.
Syed Shareezally was earlier charged with 31 other counts of money laundering.
In the four charges, Syed Shareezally was alleged to have laundered money he had taken from illegal deposit collections by investing it in the CIMB Islamic Global Emerging Markets equity fund between July 21, 2008 and Aug 14, 2008.
The father of four was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.
If found guilty, he can be fined up to RM5mil or jailed up to five years, or both.
Judge Balqis Aini allowed the four charges to be heard together with the 31 previous charges at the Seremban Sessions Court, after deputy public prosecutor Mohd Farez Rahman appealed for the move.
She also allowed for Syed Shareezally’s bail to be reduced from RM500,000 to RM200,000 in one surety.
One of Syed Shareezally’s lawyers, Mohd Fadly Hashim, said his client’s family could not afford to bail him because his wife was unemployed.
“Syed Shareezally also has four children, with the youngest being only about a-year-and-a-half,” he told the court.
The mention for the laundering charges at the Seremban Sessions Court was fixed on March 29.