Photo: Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: Bribes given to immigration officers in the counter setting investigation had codenames based on the nationality of the foreigners being brought in.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said the amount of bribes differed depending on the nationalities of the foreigners.
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"The officers are bribed between RM200 and RM2,500 for each foreigner," he told a press conference at the MACC headquarters on Wednesday (Sept 18).
Azam said for those from Bangladesh, the code name is "school boy" with a bribe of RM2,500, for Myanmar nationals it's "junta" (RM1,500), Pakistan (carpet, RM1,300), India (Kicap, roti canai, RM800), China (Limau, RM350), Vietnam (Laici, Nguyen, RM350) and Indonesia (Salak, RM300).
"For those from Yemen and Uzbekistan, the bribes are RM1,000 and RM500 respectively with no codenames," he said.
Azam said the counter setting syndicate promoted their services through social media sites.
"The agents will contact the immigration officers through WhatsApp to get a suitable date to bring in a group of foreigners to Malaysia. The immigration officers will then give a green light on a suitable date before the agents supply passport details and photos of the foreigners.
"The immigration officers will then give the number for the special counter to be used by the group of foreigners for easy access into the country. After going through the counters, the agents will transport the foreigners to their intended destinations," he said.
An array of items were seized from the syndicate including RM518,250 cash discovered at the home of a female immigration officer in Pahang, and RM248,443 cash from an immigration officer in Melaka, Azam said.
"The total amount of cash seized in Ops Pump, Ops Pump 2.0 and Ops Setting is RM1.49mil, US$9,900, and Thai Baht 5,470. We also seized items including nine cars, 13 motorcycles, 27 pieces of gold, more than 75 pieces of jewellery, and more than 12 luxury watches. Some 215 bank accounts with a total of RM3.6mil have also been frozen," he said.
