Justice. Judge hammer on the table
KOTA KINABALU: An auditor and a retired administrative assistant have been charged with corruption amounting to RM780,000 in 2014 and 2015, involving falsification of sales tax statements amongst other things.
The accused, Zulfikar Khomeini Asli, 44, and Mat Salleh @ Awang Sapong Sapong, 67, both pleaded not guilty to the charges read before them at the Special Corruptions Court here yesterday.
They were both working at the state Finance Ministry at the time these alleged offences were committed between July 2014 and November 2015.
Zulkifar is facing 34 charges for asking and accepting bribes in numerous transactions to help a company evade tax and to not conduct spot checks on the company over alleged falsification of sales tax statements.
He is accused of accepting the bribes by asking the said company to transfer the money to his mother and sister’s company accounts.
Salleh was accused of abetting these deals and transactions during the same period of time.
Judge Jason Juga allowed a RM80,000 bail with a RM20,000 deposit and two local sureties respectively for both accused.
He also ordered both of them to report to the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission office once every two months.
They were instructed to hand over their passports to the court until their case is over.
It is learnt that both accused are still trying to come up with the money to post bail.
The Finance Ministry is in the process of getting back under-declared tax from several palm oil companies in the state.
