Petronas engineer, wife remanded over Sabah bribery case

PUTRAJAYA: A 58-year-old Petronas Chemical Group engineer and his 49-year-old wife have been remanded for six days from today until March 11 to facilitate investigations into bribery allegations for a project in Sabah.
Magistrate Khir Nizam Jemari granted the order following an application from the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The couple who arrived at the Palace of Justice (PoJ) courthouse here at 9am is being investigated for allegedly demanding for a RM361,000 bribe from a contractor who was assigned to carry out serviceability tests on the piping system installed at the Sabah Ammonia Urea (Samur) project in Sipitang, Sabah three years ago.
They were initially detained at their house in Shah Alam at 2pm on Monday.
Sources said the engineer who was a quality control/analysis manager for the project had allegedly received kickbacks to facilitate the appointment of sub-contractors for the project.
It is learnt that the kickbacks were paid to the engineer's personal bank account and his wife's company account.
On a separate matter, a 'Datuk' who was remanded for four days since Saturday in connection with an alleged RM3 million bribe to close investigations involving the RM6.3 billion seabed tunnel project in Penang was released on MACC bail, today.
Khir set the bail at RM350,000 with one surety following MACC’s application.
The 64-year-old man arrived at the courthouse at 9.15am in handcuffs and clad in MACC lockup attire.
According to earlier reports, he was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Friday and was the second suspect detained in connection with the alleged bribery.
He had allegedly solicited RM4 million, but the amount was reduced to RM3 million after negotiations with the company.