Company directors among four remanded in Johor meat cartel scandal

JOHOR BARU: Four individuals, including a frozen meat importing company director, have been remanded for four days in connection with a meat cartel scandal here.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director Datuk Azmi Alias said that the individuals are the company’s director, operation director and one of its clerks as well as the director of a wholesale company.

He said that the MACC is investigating the case under Section 17(b) of the MACC 2009 Act, which carries a fine of five times the amount of the bribe or RM10,000 or whichever is higher, and imprisonment of not more than 20 years upon conviction.

Assistant registrar Nur Izzaty Muhammad Zahari allowed the four suspects, aged between 39 and 50, including one woman to be remanded starting from Monday (Jan 4) to facilitate MACC’s investigation.

Recently, authorities busted a cartel that had been smuggling meat from Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina and China, and repackaging them with a halal logo.

A raid was carried out at a warehouse in Senai, Johor, where 1,500 tonnes of frozen meat worth RM30mil were seized.

The cartel, believed to have been operating for a few years, had allegedly been using the warehouse as a location to make fake labels and stamps to be pasted on packages of meat not certified to be halal.

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