Three Sabah JPN officials held

KOTA KINABALU - Three Sabah National Registration Department (JPN) officials - one of them believed holding a senior rank - have been arrested and remanded for suspected involvement in a syndicate offering MyKad to illegal immigrants.

It is understood that the Sabah Department Director also had his statement taken by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency officials on the matter on Friday. However, the Sabah JPN Director could not be reached for comments.

Daily Express understands that the three were brought before Magistrate Cyndi McJuce who allowed the remand for seven days, Saturday. They were seen escorted to the lock-up by the MACC officials at 9:30am.

Also with the three officials was a middleman whose remand order expired on Saturday. The suspect who owns a chain of Indian Muslim restaurants in Sandakan was picked up on Sept. 17.

It was understood that the middleman would inquire from illegals interested in acquiring MyKads at RM5,000 each and the particulars would be forwarded to the three JPN officials for the identification document to be processed.

It is not known how many MyKads might have been issued this way or how long the scam was going on but it came to light when a dispute arose between the middlemen and the JPN officials, recently, over the applications by three foreigners suspected to be Filipinos.

It is also understood that the JPN officials immediately deleted the particulars of the foreigners from the system when the matter came to the knowledge of their higher ups.

The issuance of identification documents had always been blamed on syndicates and this is the first time that high-ranking JPN officials based in Kota Kinabalu have been directly implicated.