SEREMBAN: Two men were jailed 14 days and fined RM75,000 each by the Sessions Court here for bribing a Tenaga Nasional Bhd employee with RM15,000.
Goh How Keong, 50, and Gan Tze Lee, 49 were charged with bribing Mohd Amir Mohamad as inducement not to take action against them for stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrency at several premises here and in Senawang.
Amir was an intelligence and enforcement officer with Tenaga Nasional's special engagement against losses unit.
Judge Rushan Lutfi Mohamed also ordered the duo to be jailed for 12 months if they could not pay the fine.
The duo committed the offence at a car park at Stadium Tunku Abdul Rahman in Taman Paroi Jaya on Nov 5 last year.
They were charged under Section 16(b)(A) of the MACC Act 2009, punishable under Section 24(1).
Offenders can be jailed up to 20 years and fined not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Rushan also ordered the forfeiture of RM83,380, proceeds from illegal activities which were seized from the duo.
According to the facts of the case, the duo had been involved in cryptocurrency mining activities since the mid-2021.
In August, Amir's team raided a building where cryptocurrency mining was being carried out.
They then saw a man in his car outside the premises, who was later established to be Goh.
Goh obtained Amir's contact number and asked him not to destroy the machines used for the mining activities seized by his team.
He also offered to pay Amir for this as well as not to take action on other premises.
On Nov 15, he handed over RM15,000 to Amir, which was witnessed by MACC officers.
The MACC's Mohamad Azriff Firdaus Mohamad Ali prosecuted while the defendants were represented by Siew Yen Mee
In mitigation, Siew asked the court to impose a light sentence as the duo had saved the court's time by pleading guilty and had families to provide for.
The duo were arrested on Feb 28 and have been in remand since March 1.