Gnanaraja pleads not guilty to 68 counts of money laundering

KUALA LUMPUR: Businessman G. Gnanaraja, who was implicated in the Penang undersea tunnel scandal, has been charged with 68 counts of money laundering, involving RM11.4mil.

The former “Datuk Seri” was accused of making several payments from illegal activities from bank accounts to two government organisations, 26 different companies, and 10 individuals between July 2017 and January last year.

According to the charge sheets, the highest amount of monies involved were payments of RM2.2mil to the Home Ministry on Sept 19, 2017 and RM2.4mil to Matthew Ong & Associates on Aug 28, 2017.

The offence falls under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 which carries a maximum fine of up to RM5mil, or a maximum jail term of five years, if convicted.

The 38-year-old pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to him before Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob here on Monday (April 8).

It took two court interpreters and 75 minutes for all the 68 charges to be read out.

DPP Allan Suman Pillai applied for the case to be jointly tried with the accused’s previous charges at the Shah Alam Sessions Court.

He also asked the court to impose a RM50,000 bail, and told the accused to surrender a land title to the court as part of his bail conditions.

Lawyer Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent, who represented the accused, did not object the transfer of the case and agreed with the bail amount.

Rozina then fixed bail at RM50,000 in one surety.

She also allowed the case to be transferred to Shah Alam Sessions Court. The case is set for mention May 6.

On April 3, Gnanaraja claimed trail to three charges of cheating the Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd managing director of RM19mil by claiming that he was able to settle the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into the RM6.3bil mega tunnel project.