PETALING JAYA: The head honcho of Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has stepped down after 38 years with the police force, but not without some choice words for crooked lawyers and rogue bank workers.
Admonishing fraudsters and their conspirators, Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said their misdeeds had eroded public trust, causing much uncertainty among the people.
“We are living in a world filled with unpredictability and complexity, which has left people vulnerable to financial deception.
“Hence, the legal profession should be a trusted avenue where people seek recourse for their predicaments. The same goes for those in the banking sector,” he said.
Since 2021, there had been 167 people swindled of RM160.1mil by rogue lawyers.
As for dishonest bank members, a report in July last year quoted Comm Ramli in a case in which a bank discovered that one of its employees had made an unauthorised RM2mil withdrawal from some current accounts.
Comm Ramli, who retired as he turns 60 today, is among the few police directors, past or present, who has rebuked the legal profession and banking sector, imploring them to review its work processes to prevent fraud pulled off by its members.
“More measures must be taken to ensure safer protocols and robust mechanisms to prevent the people from becoming victims.
“As a law enforcement officer, I am just doing my part to point out such weaknesses to combat financial crimes and prevent further losses to the public,” he said in an interview prior to his retirement.
Comm Ramli also warned that the ever-growing digital technology would leave people more vulnerable to scams, especially investment-based ones with over RM850mil lost last year.
He recounted his time as a CCID investigations officer three decades ago, when he dealt with white-collar criminals swindling people of a few hundred thousand ringgit.
“This has now escalated to hundreds of millions of ringgit with the culprits being syndicates,” he added.
Comm Ramli said public awareness is the key to being “ahead of the game”.
“Otherwise, your savings will be wiped out, leaving you impoverished,” he said.
He lamented that there would always be people who are ignorant about the risks.
“Even as we speak, there is someone out there lodging a police report on being scammed. We have harped on this over and over. Don’t be gullible. Always be sceptical when you get calls or offers to multiply your funds,” he said.
Comm Ramli, who started his journey with the force in 1987 as an investigating officer for commercial crimes, spent most of his service in Bukit Aman serving many divisions of the administration department.
He was Pahang police chief in 2021. At one point, he was the head of the Bukit Aman Corporate Communications Department, where he said he did his best to entertain every query in the belief that “whatever we do, we should do so transparently”.
“The public has the right to know about current matters so that they can be an informed society. So, that is the premise in which I work with the media and I have no qualms dealing with them.
“The police and the media have to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. In this context, I feel we should always complement each other,” he added.
On his hopes for the CCID after his retirement, Comm Ramli said all personnel should continue to keep themselves abreast with development.
“They must be hungry for knowledge and upgrade their technical skills, both formally or informally, as knowledge alone may not be enough.
“Both soft and hard skills are essential. They must have the ability to lead and have foresight.When you have all these, you can’t go wrong,” he said.
Otherwise, he said, the workforce would not be efficient and productive as the situation remains “status quo”.
To him, an organisation would face a decline if its predecessors did not leave a strong mark.
“And I am confident that the police force will be a lot better in the future with the new leadership,” he said.
On his plans after retirement, he said he intends to do voluntary work in any capacity that enables him to contribute the most.
“The most important thing to me is to keep working. As they say, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. After 38 years, the police force has trained me to adapt to new environments,” he said.
Asked about his legacy, Comm Ramli said he would relate it to the song What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, adding that the lyrics resonated with him.
“Those words showed that whoever comes after me must have more knowledge, skills and abilities. This is something I can relate to,” he said, referring to the lyrics: “I see babies cry, I watch them grow. They learn much more than I’ll ever know.”
