A SIX-MONTH multi-agency fraud investigation ended with the arrest of seven people, believed to be members of a syndicate that had defrauded the government over RM15 million by selling revenue stamps and temporary work pass stickers. 

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy commissioner Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya, in confirming the arrests, said the syndicate had been kept under surveillance by a joint MACC-Immigration Department team.

The case was investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009. 

According to sources, all the suspects were arrested around Kuala Lumpur and are aged between 30 and 39.

Four of those arrested were employees of a security printing company. 

“The syndicate is believed to have been in operation for three years and has raked in millions,” one source told The Malaysian Insight.

The syndicate’s modus operandi is to offer bribes to the printing staff to steal the revenue stamp books and the temporary work pass, better known by its acronym PLKS, stickers from the plant’s store.

They would then use the three individuals to sell them in the black market.

The source said 2,500 pieces of revenue stamps, in RM250 and RM10 denominations and worth RM12.5 million, were seized in the round-up yesterday.

The RM250 revenue stamps were sold for between RM40 and RM60 in the black while the RM10 stamps were between RM5 and RM6, according to the source. 

Revenue stamps are used as payment for stamp duty for any sale and purchase agreement.

These revenue stamps can be bought at any post office or branches of the Inland Revenue Board.

The syndicate is also believed to be selling the work pass stickers at a lower price than that sold by the Immigration Department. 

The source said those stickers, which cost between RM2,000 and RM3,000, were sold for between RM700 to RM800 a piece in the black market.

The prices vary according to the employment sector. – February 18, 2021.