Youth and Sports Ministry officer charged in court for graft

KUALA LUMPUR: An official from the Youth and Sports Ministry was today charged in the Sessions Court with 32 counts of misappropriating government funds totaling RM38.4 million and falsifying documents.
Otman Arshad, 57, who is the ministry's finance division under-secretary, claimed trial to the offences under Section 18(a) and 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009.
He is charged with committing the offence at the National Sports Council office between May 2, 2012 and Nov 18, 2015.
Deputy public prosecutor Amir Nasruddin asked the court to set bail at RM1 million and also have Otman surrender his passport.
However, defence counsel Mohd Farid Abdul Aziz said the amount requested by the prosecution was exorbitant and also that Otman's accounts had since been frozen and he had no other source of income.
He told the court that his client's family would only be able to raise RM100,000.
Judge Allaudeen Ismail later set bail at RM250,000 in two sureties while the court also ordered the accused to surrender his passport pending disposal of the case.
The court set April 21 for mention.
Otman's wife and two children were also present in court.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had earlier this month arrested an officer of the ministry on suspicion of having been behind a syndicate responsible for misappropriation of government funds totalling RM107 million.
The syndicate, believed to have been active since 2010, had allegedly used the finance divisions of agencies at the ministry to make payments to 14 companies for sports-related programmes.