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PETALING JAYA: A company director was acquitted of extorting RM5 million from Sunway Group Chairman Jeffrey Cheah after the Attorney General’s Office (AGC) decided not to pursue the case.
On February 27, 2019, Cheah Chyuan Yong, 39, pleaded not guilty in Magistrates Court to the charge of extorting Jeffrey by threatening to release a letter from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The crime was allegedly committed with the aim of inducing Jeffrey to hand over a sum of money to Beh Chun Chuan and to settle all of the defendant’s debt to Sunway Leasing Sdn Bhd for a total of RM5 million.
Chyuan Yong is alleged to have committed the crime at the Sunway Pyramid Mall here on October 12, 2018.
He was charged under Section 385 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years, with a fine or flogging, or two such penalties, upon conviction.
Attorney Hazizah Kassim, representing Chyuan Yong, told Bernama that on June 16 the Magistrates Court ordered that the defendant be released without amounting to an acquittal after the defense requested a release order.
This was after Jeffrey, who was a prosecution witness and a complainant in the case, failed to appear to testify at trial.
“On August 4, we wrote to the attorney general asking that the accused be acquitted and released,” he said.
He said they received a letter from the AGC dated October 7, confirming that he would not pursue the case.
The letter was signed by the head of AGC’s General Crimes and Public Order Unit, Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim.
