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PUTRAJAYA: The bribery busters couldn’t believe what they saw in their investigation into an immigration union offering “special services” – a fleet of luxury cars comprising a Phantom Rolls Royce, Mustang, Range Rover and an Audi.
Not bad for an immigration officer in grade KP19, where the salary range is only RM1,360 to RM4,052, not including allowances.
All four cars were seized, adding to an overall loot that included more than RM800,000 in cash, another 22 luxury cars, four high-powered motorcycles, as well as other assets such as houses, land, jewelry and designer handbags. .
Living within your means is good advice for anyone, but perhaps more so if you are breaking the law.
The seizures came as part of a nationwide bombing codenamed “Ops Selat,” which has also seen the arrest of 50 people involved in the union: 28 Immigration Department officials, 17 foreign worker agents and five more.
Yesterday’s latest arrest involved an immigration officer and three foreign worker agents who have been in pretrial detention for six days.
The union that provides “sealing facilities” for foreign workers and illegal immigrants is believed to be involved in international human trafficking, particularly in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
This was discovered during union investigations which found that foreign agents had been working with immigration officers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and KLIA2 to assist foreigners in and out of Malaysia.
Sources close to Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission said investigators were shocked to discover that a low-ranking immigration officer owned a fleet of luxury cars.
Two of the four suspects arrested in the Shah Alam trial court
It was found that the installation of the entire process and also the special immigration counters at KLIA and KLIA2 involved international unions and local agents.
“Visitors who have been blacklisted but want to enter Malaysia will be assisted by agents abroad who will provide their Malaysian counterparts with details of the visitors.
“Local agents will contact immigration officers at KLIA and KLIA2 to ‘set up’ counters to facilitate entry of foreigners,” a source told The Star.
A similar process was carried out when a foreigner, who has been blacklisted, has an expired visit pass or has a false passport, wanted to leave the country.
“We discovered that the luxury cars were registered with two Chinese nationals believed to be agents for foreign workers operating here, as well as the names of two local agents,” the source said.
The union, whose services have been in high demand since the movement control order was imposed in March, is believed to have provided “flying passport” services where officers collected passports from foreign workers and illegal immigrants whose social visiting passes had expired.
The passports would then receive immigration entry and exit stamps from the union to allow for the extension of the permits, which is a violation of procedure as the owner of a travel document must be present during the immigration process. The union is believed to charge between RM500 and RM6,000 for “counter” installations.
The union, which has been in operation since 2017, is believed to have raised RM14.5 million.
Intelligence revealed that the union had provided their “air passport” and “counter services” to at least 30,000 foreign workers and illegal immigrants.
MACC Investigations Director Datuk Norazlan Mohd Razali confirmed the arrests and said the suspects were being investigated under the MACC Act and the Anti-Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proceeds of Illicit Act.
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