An owner of a cosmetic company, Mona Liza Ahmad, has pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (Oct 4) to seven charges of submitting false documents to claim incentives under the Penjana Kerjaya programme. The charges involve false Employee Verification Forms submitted by her company, Nona Chantique Empire, in claim of incentives amounting to over RM120,000. The intention was to deceive the Social Security Organisation (Socso) officers Nursofieyana Muhammad Zamri and Mira Sabriena Romain. The offence took place at Wisma Perkeso, Jalan Tun Razak, on 31 May 2021.
According to Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, if convicted, she could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount or value of the false claim or RM10,000, whichever is higher. Mona Liza was also charged with five alternative charges of using falsified “Borang Pengesahan Pekerja Program Insentif Pengambilan Pekerja” to claim the same incentives amount.
For these alternative charges, the penalty is imprisonment for up to seven years along with a fine. Judge Kamarudin Kamsun granted Mona Liza bail of RM30,000 for all charges and ordered her to report herself at the MACC office once a month, as well as surrender her passport to the court. The court has set 8 November for mention. Deputy public prosecutor Julaila Jamaludin, from MACC, is prosecuting, while lawyer Nor Shafika Balqis Jaffri represents Mona Liza.
In a separate case, the manager of Aksara United Management Sdn Bhd, S. Kamala Segaran, was also charged in the same court with a similar offence. The charges involve incentive claims of RM36,780 under the Penjana Kerjaya programme. Kamala Segaran was accused of conspiring with project coordinator L. Guhan to deceive a Socso agent regarding the employment status of two individuals. As a result, Socso transferred RM9,600 into the company’s bank account. The offence is alleged to have taken place at Menara Perkeso Putrajaya on 23 October 2020.
Kamala Segaran is also facing two counts of submitting falsified documents to claim incentives of RM27,180 under the Penjana Kerjaya programme for three non-employees of the company, which were allegedly facilitated by Guhan. Kamala Segaran was granted bail of RM15,000 with one surety for the three charges. He was also ordered to report to the MACC office monthly. Just like Mona Liza’s case, the court has set 8 November for mention. MACC prosecuting officer Raymond Nion John Timban is prosecuting, while lawyer V. Saravanan represents Kamala Segaran. – Bernama
Credit: The Star : News Feed
