KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today arrested six Telekom Malaysia cooperatives' top officials over suspicion of graft and abuse of power.
In a statement, the anti-graft body said the six individuals were suspected to be involved in two cases which resulted in co-op members being cheated and losing money.
The suspects were believed to have conspired with the supplier, by buying daily necessities in bulk under the cooperatives and sold them back to the same supplier.
When co-op members want to purchase the goods, they would have to take up a loan with the cooperatives before the supplier would deliver the items. The supplier would then issue an invoice seeking payment from the cooperatives.
“The supplier will sell the items at a high price to the co-op and they will divide the profit with the co-op board members involved,” the statement said.
Four of those arrested include the chairman, secretary, treasurer and a board member. A supplier and the wife of a board member were also detained in the operation.
MACC believed that apart from this, the board members were also suspected to have abused their power by signing up borrowers to a direct selling and multi-level marketing (MLM) company.
The six detained were believed to have deceived more than 450 members, with profit amounting to more than hundred thousands of ringgit.
The members were mostly unaware that by taking up a loan with the cooperatives, they also signed up with the MLM company.