KUALA LUMPUR: The former director of a company, accused of criminal breach of trust involving RM18.9 million, pleaded guilty to the offence today and was sentenced to three years’ jail.
J. Alan Rajendram, 62, changed his plea from ‘not guilty’ on an alternative charge and a second charge before sessions court judge Hasbullah Adam.
In accepting the plea, the court imposed a three-year jail sentence on the accused for each charge and ordered that the sentences run concurrently from March 23.
Today was fixed for a decision following the end of the defence's case, but the accused unexpectedly changed his plea.
According to the facts of the case, Rajendram had, in his capacity as the director of LFE Corporation Bhd and LFE International Limited, misappropriated property entrusted to him worth RM9 million and RM9.9 million respectively.
The offences were committed at the Standard Chartered Bank Bhd at Jalan Ampang here, between Jan 4, 2007, and Jan 16, the same year.
Earlier, the accused's counsel, Harvinderjit Singh, pleaded for the jail sentences to run concurrently, beginning March 23, the date the accused was sentenced for another case.
A total of 35 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses – including the accused himself – testified in the trial which began in 2010.
Securities Commission deputy public prosecutor Aimi Khalidah Mohd Puzi prosecuted.