KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has upheld the acquittal of an insurance consultant trainer from a charge of cheating and 25 counts of money laundering amounting to more than RM1.8mil.
Justice Muhammad Jamil Hussin dismissed the appeal by the prosecution which sought to set aside the Sessions Court’s decision in March 2023 to acquit and discharge Zuriati Mohamed Yusoff, 51, from the charges.
In his decision yesterday, the judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the predicate offence, thereby causing the money laundering charges to fail, Bernama reported.
Zuriati, who is the respondent in the appeal, contended in her defence that a sum of RM1,849,719.75 was a repayment that was made earlier by her husband (the sixth prosecution witness) in gold trading, adhering to an instruction by a financial adviser (first prosecution witness).
Justice Muhammad Jamil said this defence had raised a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
“The prosecution has failed to prove that the respondent had deceived the complainant (fifth prosecution witness). Therefore, the prosecution failed to prove the predicate offence of cheating,” he remarked.
As there was no predicate offence, there was no possibility that the money came from proceeds of illegal activities, he said.
Zuriati was accused of cheating a man by deceiving him in the purchase of six insurance policies that did not exist, and inducing the complainant to hand over RM1,849,719.75 at a premises in Jalan Raja Chulan on May 21, 2018.
She was charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code that provides a jail term of between one and 10 years, with whipping and fine, if convicted.
For the money laundering charges, Zuriati, a former director at Millionaire Synergy Sdn Bhd, was accused of receiving RM1,849,719.75 said to be proceeds from illegal activities.
On the second to the fourth charges, she was alleged to have used between RM20,000 and RM90,000 in four cheques issued by the company as payment for herself and another individual.
On the remaining 20 charges, Zuriati was charged with transferring between RM10,000 and RM435,080 from the company’s account into the savings and current accounts belonging to her, a company and 17 individuals.
All the offences were allegedly committed between May 21 and July 6, 2018.
The charges were framed under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds from Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
