Requirement for ‘unlawful activity’ not met, says court
KUALA LUMPUR: After a six-year legal battle, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has been acquitted of 17 money laundering and tax evasion charges involving a total of RM7mil.
The High Court allowed Rosmah’s application to have all the charges quashed after finding that they were flawed.
Justice K. Muniandy, in his brief grounds of judgment, said the charges failed to disclose essential elements of the alleged offences.
“The conduct of the accused is not disclosed in the charges.
“The unlawful activity is also not disclosed, but the proceeds of unlawful activity have appeared from nowhere.
“Without those elements, what is available on the charge is only an act of deposit of a sum of monies into the bank account, which by itself is not an offence known to law,” the judge said here yesterday.
Justice Muniandy said that as such, the charges did not meet the requirement of proceeds of unlawful activity as there were no transactions or dealings involved as envisaged by Act 613 for them to amount to a money laundering offence.
The court also found duplicity because some of the charges under the Income Tax Act 1967 overlapped since the dates and amount stated corresponded with each other.
“In the circumstances, an appropriate order of this court has to be a discharge amounting to an acquittal,” he said.
The case was partly heard with two witnesses having testified on the stand before Rosmah filed the application to strike out the case in September 2023.
In 2018, Rosmah was charged with five counts of engaging in money laundering by failing to furnish a return on the RM7,097,750 income deposited into her bank account, which she was required to do under the Income Tax Act 1967.
Acquitted: Rosmah arriving at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur over the tax evasion case. — Bernama
The five charges were framed under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
Rosmah was also charged with 12 counts of engaging directly in transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activity by causing RM7,097,750 to be deposited into her bank account.
She allegedly committed all the offences at Affin Bank Bhd, Natural Rubber building branch, Jalan Ampang between Dec 4, 2013, and June 8, 2017, and at the LHDN (Inland Revenue Board) office in Government Complex, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim here, from May 1, 2014 to May 1, 2018.
When met later, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the prosecution would be appealing the acquittal.
Meanwhile, Rosmah said the acquittal is a meaningful gift in conjunction with her 73rd birthday on Dec 10.
The wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was all smiles as she was able to close the chapter.
“My lawyers have assured me since day one that these charges had no basis, but you can never be certain.
“My acquittal ... is not only a meaningful gift for me but also a gift for my Bossku (Najib),” said Rosmah.
“This is what I call justice,” she said when met by reporters after proceedings ended.
Rosmah was represented by lawyers Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin and Amer Hamzah Arshad.
