KUALA LUMPUR: Three men from Sierra Leone claimed trial at the Sessions Court today to a joint charge of possessing four counterfeit US$100 notes earlier this month.
Private college students Ibrahim Jalloh, 25; John Morovia, 30, and Sorie Brima Caulker, 20, had separately made their plea after the charge was read out to them in English before judge Azura Alwi.
Ibrahim, along with John and Sorie, were charged with possessing the notes knowing that they were counterfeit and intending to use them as genuine at a condominium in Jalan Ampang on Oct 2.
The charge under Section 489C of the Penal Code read with Section 34 provides a jail term up to 10 years.
Deputy public prosecutor Saravanan Meyappan did not offer bail as the offence was non-bailable.
"However, if the court wishes to use its discretion to give bail, I ask the court to set bail at RM50,000 with two local sureties.
"As additional conditions, they must surrender their passports to the court, report to the police and not harass prosecution witnesses, especially the complainant in this case," he said.
In mitigation, lawyer Nurul Diyana Basher pleaded for minimum bail to be offered to her clients, describing the sum proposed by the prosecution as too high.
"The four US$100 notes amounts to over RM1,000 after conversion.
"They are students with no prior criminal record and they are ready to comply with the additional conditions," she said.
Azura allowed bail at RM12,000 with two local sureties for each accused.
She ordered them to surrender their passports to the court and report to the Ampang and Puchong police stations monthly until case disposal.
The court fixed Dec 20 for mention.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf had said three men from Sierra Leone were arrested for their suspected involvement in a counterfeit money scam.
The trio were believed to have bought 10,000 forged US dollar bills on TikTok for RM6.97 and tried to sell them off as genuine for RM1,000.
Investigations showed that they allegedly began their activities this year by purchasing the fake bills and blank currency paper through a seller on TikTok.
Ramli had said they would allegedly resell the fake bills to buyers in Malaysia at RM1,000 per 10,000 pieces. They also allegedly told potential clients that they had a machine that could create fake bank notes.
Ramli had said police seized four counterfeit US$100 bills, two blank pieces of paper the same size as the US$100 bills, a machine, four mobile phones, two cars and one passport.