KLIA immigration officer arrested while accepting bribe

Kalidevi Mogan Kumarappa Kalidevi Mogan Kumarappa Updated 3 years ago · Published on 3 Dec 2020 10:45AM · 5 Comments

Certain immigration counters at KLIA have been facilitating the illegal entry of Chinese nationals into the country. – EPA pic, December 3, 2020.

THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday arrested an immigration officer and a local agent while the former was in the act of accepting a bribe to release two China nationals, said sources.

The 26-year-old KP19 grade officer was arrested at 7.45pm while accepting the bribe at the Petronas petrol station near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

“The suspect working at the KLIA operations division was arrested by the Selangor MACC for soliciting bribes of RM22,000 to release two Chinese nationals detained by the agency on November 30 for using a fake stamp,” said a source.

Yesterday’s arrest was a follow-up to the initial arrest of a 40-year-old agent in Cheras at 12pm.

The source said initial interrogation found that the money received was for an immigration officer at KLIA.

“Their modus operandi is that certain officers will provide these agents with details about Chinese nationals detained for immigration offences at KLIA.

“The agents’ job is to contact their families in China to seek bribes to release them.”

Family members in China would contact friends in Malaysia to help provide money and hand over money to agents.

According to sources, this case is not linked to MACC’s recent “Ops Selat” involving immigration personnel falsifying entry and exit stamps at the main borders.

“This suspect was alone in this and is used to doing such acts.”

Selangor MACC director Alias Salim confirmed the two arrests when contacted.

“The case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009 for soliciting bribes. Both suspects will be remanded at the Shah Alam Court this morning.”

MACC recently broke up a major nationwide immigration crime ring under Ops Selat.

A total of 65 individuals were detained – 39 immigration officers, 17 agents and nine civilians.

A deputy director at KLIA was among those arrested on suspicion of colluding with syndicates.

The syndicates provided Immigration personnel, including those in the lowest KP19 grade, with the use of luxury vehicles, such as Roll-Royce Phantoms, Mustangs, Range Rovers and Audis.

The modus operandi was to arrange the setting of specific immigration counters at KLIA and klia2, masterminded by foreign agents.

The international syndicate would provide the name, passport number and flight schedule of the blacklisted visitors or foreign workers to agents in Malaysia.

The Malaysian agents would contact the immigration personnel at KLIA and klia2 to arrange the setting at the counters to enable these workers or visitors to slip into the country using fraudulent stamps. – December 3, 2020.

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Comments

  • Najib is the leader and the fish has rotted throughout because the head was rotten. Only when you cut off the head and put him in jail, nothing will work.

    Posted 3 years ago by Alphonz Jayaratnam · Reply

    • Totally agrees with you on this. Simply put it its a domino effect. Babak menteri buat, goes to the DG level followed by the KP & PKP and when the office see it, it ingrains the officers behind the desk and counters and the enforcement unit adopt Cash is King and closed both eyes in discharging their work. Taking oath of integrity is just a ceremonial events, deep down most of them are corrupted to the core a good example set by none other then Najib & his consort

      Posted 3 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply

  • Would any foreign investors invest in a country like this? Corruption is everywhere from politicians to the police force to immigration to civil servants.

    Posted 3 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • If the biggest corrupt crook in the world after stealing billions from taxpayers can still walk around and attend parliament, why would anyone pay attention to MACC? The whole country must be a laughing stock to outsiders!

    Posted 3 years ago by Loyal Malaysian · Reply

  • Will the Airport Management even take any responsibility for thus lapse and apologies to Malaysians? The airport is the gateway to the country and it is clear the staff there is running scams with the immigration department. Is there any effort whatsoever to put in place anti corruption measures and whistleblowing measures? Is the minister of transport or home minister going to investigate or are they all lying low so that no body gets implicated?

    Posted 3 years ago by Loyal Malaysian · Reply