Three men charged with cheating banks of more than RM7m

KUALA LUMPUR: Two businessmen and an unemployed man were charged in the sessions court here today with a total of 16 counts of cheating, misappropriating and dishonest removal of more than RM7 million from several banks.
Businessmen S.Chandra, 41, and Amran Ahmad ,44, pleaded not guilty to the charges, while Atan Hussin ,53, who is unemployed, pleaded guilty after the charges were read out separately before judge Rohatul Akmar Abdullah.
Chandra faced 12 counts, with eight of them for dishonest misappropriation of fund and four for cheating, while Amran with three counts, and Atan, one count, of dishonest removal of the money, involving a total of RM7.13 million.
Chandra was charged with eight counts of misappropriating money that was withdrawn by several individuals using cash cheques from the current account of other individuals, totalling RM3.58 million.
The charge, under Section 403 of the Penal Code, provides an imprisonment for up to five years and whipping and is also liable to fine, if found guilty.
Chandra was also charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code with four counts of deceiving several banks, resulting in the financial institutions, to approve loans totalling RM2.17 million.
He faced an imprisonment for up to 10 years and whipping, and fine, if found guilty.
Amran and Atan were charged with three counts and one count, respectively, of dishonestly removing money belonging to several banks which was fraudulently obtained for two housing projects, each totalling RM790,000 andRM585,000.
They were charged under Section 424 of the Penal Code and faced an imprisonment for up to five years, or fine, or both, if found guilty.
All the offences were allegedly committed at several banks in the federal capital between Feb 16, 2014 and June 24, 2015.
The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Nurakmal Farhan Aziz, while Chandra was represented by lawyer J.Tharma Kumar. Amran and Atan were unrepresented.
All of them were not allowed bail.
The court set Jan 17 for mention and also the same date for sentencing on Atan.
It was reported by the media that 13 people were arrested in a police crackdown on a syndicate that cheated banks of over RM10 million in financing for purchase of premises. — Bernama