PUTRAJAYA, Nov 16 — A former telecommunication company officer was remanded for four days starting today to assist in the investigation into a corruption case involving a short messaging system (SMS) fraud syndicate.
His arrest brought the number of individuals detained to assist in the investigation into the case thus far to 13.
The remand order was issued by Magistrate Shah Wira Abdul Halim at the Putrajaya Magistrate’s Court here following an application by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today.
According to MACC sources, the 45-year-old suspect was arrested at the Putrajaya MACC headquarters at about 10.30 pm yesterday (Sunday) after he turned up to have his statement recorded.
The sources also said that the individual is believed to have offered and received bribes for the purpose of obtaining personal information of prepaid customers.
The phone numbers obtained would then be used by the fraud syndicate content provider to charge subscription fees via SMS without the knowledge and consent of the users, the sources said.
The case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009. -BERNAMA