By MALAYSIA — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has been charged with yet another money-laundering offence today (13 March), marking the seventh charge against him.
The latest charge is related to the alleged illegal transfer of RM5 million (US$1.11 million) to his political party BERSATU (Parti Pribumi Bersatu) Malaysia’s AmBank account from Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd.
Muhyiddin has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was brought under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of not less than five times the sum of the alleged illegal funds or RM5 million, whichever is higher.
The prosecution requested that the bail conditions from the previous case be applied to this case, which included an RM2 million bail with two sureties and for his passport to be surrendered to the court.
The case was also transferred from the Shah Alam courts to the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, where Muhyiddin faces six other charges of corruption and money laundering.
Last Friday(10 March), Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister was slapped with six counts of abuse of power, and money laundering charges linked to the alleged misuse of a Covid economic recovery fund.
The BERSATU president was hit with four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling 232.5 million ringgit (US$51.4 million) for his party.
He was also slapped with two charges of money laundering involving 195 million ringgit deposited into his party account, according to the charge sheets.
These cases will be mentioned next on 26 May.
Muhyiddin was briefly detained on 9 March after anti-graft authorities interrogated him for alleged misuse of public funds intended to combat COVID-19.
Muhyiddin denied the allegations, calling it an attempt to silence the opposition by the new unity government.
Earlier, Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the information chief of BERSATU, has been charged with accepting nearly RM7 million (US$1.5 million) in bribes related to the Jana Wibawa programme, which was established during the Covid-19 pandemic to assist bumiputra contractors.