PETALING JAYA: A husband-and-wife couple working for the Immigration Department have been arrested after allegedly accepting bribes for years and using the proceeds to open a jewellery shop.
In a video statement on their official TikTok page, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) stated that investigations revealed they had utilised funds accumulated over four years to open the shop and had employed family members, including their own child, as proxies.
“Investigations revealed that the couple used the name of the woman’s younger sibling and their own child as proxies to open the gold shop, with a capital of around RM600,000.
“Investigations under Ops Dygo led to the couple, both in their 40s, being remanded for five days. They have been remanded from Sept 10 to Sept 14 following a remand order obtained from the Ayer Keroh magistrate court in Melaka,” it said on Saturday (Sept 13).
MACC deputy chief commissioner (Operations) Datuk Seri Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya, in the same statement, said that the suspects were involved in the amnesty program that allowed employers to obtain legal work permits for undocumented foreign workers.
He added that bribes were paid in cash and distributed to other offices managing the relevant files, with the suspects profiting around RM150 per foreign worker.
It is believed that the duo had accumulated around RM900,000 within a four-year period from 2020, which was then used to open the shop and to purchase a luxury vehicle.
A raid at the shop in Pahang also led to the discovery of 3kg of gold, which was estimated to be worth around RM1.4mil.
The case is being investigated under Section 16(a)(B) of the MACC Act 2009.
