Aman Palestin big guns hit with 164 charges over RM85mil of misused funds

The Star

Three big guns of charitable organisation Aman Palestin were slapped with multiple charges for counts of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and cheating at the Sessions Court in Shah Alam Thursday (Feb 15).  In the dock to face the charges were the organisation's CEO Awang Suffian Awang Piut, 52, executive director Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman, 58, and director Khairudin Mohd Ali, 42.  Read more at http://tinyurl.com/bdejdwva  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Three big guns of charitable organization Aman Palestine pleaded not guilty to multiple

00:07 charges at the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Thursday for misappropriating some 85 million

00:13 ringgit sourced from public donations.

00:16 Fifty-eight-year-old executive director Abdullah Zayk Abdul Rahman and 52-year-old CEO Awang

00:23 Sufian Awang Piyut were accused of embezzling about 39.5 million ringgit each while 42-year-old

00:30 director Khairuddin Mohamed Ali had allegedly misappropriated about 6 million ringgit.

00:37 All three were also directors of Syarikat Samudra Champa, which had allegedly utilized

00:42 Aman Palestine funds to purchase houses, shop lots, and land in various locations.

00:49 Some of the charges were for purchasing gold at a cost higher than the stipulated market

00:53 price.

00:54 The offenses were allegedly committed between 2018 and 2023.

00:59 The charges were framed under Section 4, Bracket 1 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism

01:05 Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act, as well as Section 409 and 420 of the

01:13 Penal Code for Embezzlement and Cheating.

01:16 A total of 164 charges were read, with 161 of then-involving Abdullah Zayk and Awang

01:23 Sufian.

01:24 The court spent nearly two hours reading through the 89-page summary of charges before Judge

01:30 Anita Haroon.

01:31 The court set bail at 1 million ringgit, with one surety for Awang Sufian and Abdullah Zayk,

01:38 with 500,000 ringgit to be deposited on Thursday and the remaining on March 13, which is the

01:44 date set for case mention.

01:47 As for Khairuddin, a 200,000 ringgit bail with one surety was set, and he was ordered

01:54 to make a 100,000 ringgit payment on Thursday with the remaining amount to be settled in

01:59 a month's time.

02:01 Judge Anita also ordered for their passports to be surrendered to the court.

02:06 According to the organization's website, Aman Palestine was formed in 2004 with an

02:11 aim to channel aid and look out for the welfare and human rights of Palestinians.

02:17 The MACC launched a probe last October over allegations that the organization's funds

02:23 were allegedly diverted for purposes other than the objectives behind the establishment

02:28 of the company.

02:29 The U.S. Department of Justice has not responded to requests for comment.

02:34 [ Silence ]

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