KUALA LUMPUR: Former Companies Commission of Malaysia's (SSM) chief executive officer Datuk Zahrah Abd Wahad Fenner was charged at the Sessions Court with receiving graft of more than RM5 million four years ago.
Her son Abdulazeez Wan Ruslan was also charged separately at the same court with receiving and abetting his mother to receive RM85,000 and RM75,000 respectively.
Zahrah, 60, claimed trial to all offences.
She appeared calm when all 33 charges were read to her by an interpreter before Judge Azura Alwi today.
Zahrah allegedly received RM5.703 million from several individuals as an inducement for her to approve contracts and tenders involving SSM.
She allegedly received graft from Ramulianto Mohram through Mohamad Shahren Mohamad Yusri as a reward for approving applications to organise among others, Online Networking Entrepreneurs SSM 2015 (ONE SSM) and Karnival Youngpreneurs, Go! (YPGo) between 2015 and 2017.
Zahrah allegedly received RM75,000 in stages for Stakeboarding Development Malaysia which belongs to Abdulazeez from Big Dataworkds and Prima Areananiaga Sdn Bhd respectively.
She also allegedly received RM70,000 from Fixme Coach Sdn Bhd director Samhan Adnan relating to the SSM BizRun 2018 on Feb 6, 2018.
Zahrah was charged with abetting Abdulazeez to receive RM15,000 from Samhan Adnan for the development of Online Networking Entrepreneurs (One Portal) in March 2018.
As for Abdulazeez, 33, he was slapped with four counts of receiving bribes and abetment amounting to RM160,000.
As for the corruption charges, he allegedly received RM15,000 and 70,000 from Samhan relating to One Portal and SSM BizRun 2018, respectively.
He was also slapped with two counts of abetting his mother to receive graft amounting to RM75,000 in stages from Stakeboarding Development Malaysia between Aug 16 and Sept 21, 2017.
Abdulazeez claimed trial to all offences.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor Allan Suman Pillai asked the court to impose RM500,000 bail each against the accused.
“We also want both the accused to be jointly tried as both cases are related,” he said.
Counsel Hamidi Mohd Noh who represented both accused did not object to the application.
However, he pleaded for minimum bail, stating that both of his clients were jobless.
“As for Zahrah, she retired this year and suffered from high blood pressure and Abdulazeez had gotten married. MACC also froze both of my client’s bank accounts,” he said.
The court then set bail at RM300,000 for Zahrah and RM70,000 for Abdulazeez.
“Both of them must surrender their passports to the court and report themselves at the MACC headquarters once a month,” said Azura.
The court fixed Nov 26 for mention.