PANDAN lawmaker Rafizi Ramli and former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad have been found guilty and sentenced to 30 months’ jail by the Shah Alam Sessions Court today of breaching the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) in relation to the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd accounts leak.
Judge Zamri Bakar said the prosecution has proven its case beyond doubt.
Both were ordered to enter their defence by Zamri on October 25 last year.
Deputy public prosecutors Lailawati Ali and Steven Chin appeared for the prosecution while Ahmad Nizam Hamid appeared for Rafizi and Latheefa Koya appeared for Johari.
In 2011, Rafizi exposed the national cattle-farm breeder’s purchases of luxury condominium units.
NFC was owned by Mohamad Salleh Ismail, husband of Umno Wanita head Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
The auditor-general’s report in 2010 had also highlighted NFC’s failure to achieve its target of breeding 8,000 head of cattle in Gemas, Negri Sembilan, besides noting its management failures.
In November 2016, Rafizi lost a defamation suit and was ordered to pay Salleh and NFC RM200,000 in damages for claiming that a bank loan taken by the feedlot was used to purchase a condominium.
Nizam applied for a stay application, which the judge granted. Bail was set at RM15,000.
He will also file the application today.
Lailawati earlier sought a fine of RM500,000 and a six-month jail sentence for the accused.
“It gives the public the wrong message that it (leaking confidential banking details) wasn’t a serious offence.”
Rafizi and Johari were charged under Section 97 which carries a three-year jail sentence or a fine of RM3 million or both.
Nizam earlier pleaded for a more lenient punishment for Rafizi while Latheefa said Johari should not be jailed since he did not profit from the leak.
Rafizi later said he was relieved that he was sentenced to 30 months’ jail without a fine.
“If I were fined a big amount, I would not know when I could pay it and it would have a great impact on Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) campaign (at the 14th general election),” he said. – February 7, 2018.
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