IPOH: A dealer was charged on the Sessions Court right here with providing RM126,500 in bribes to a Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) officer final Monday (Feb 28), in connection with bitcoin mining actions.
Ding Ai Sing, 50, pleaded not responsible when the cost was learn to him in mandarin earlier than Judge Meor Sulaiman Ahmad Tarmizi on Friday (March 4).
According to the cost, Ding was accused of bribing a 30-year-old TNB officer by means of one other man, aged 36, as an inducement to not take motion in opposition to the premises operator who was suspected of stealing electrical energy round Klang Valley to hold out bitcoin mining actions.
The offence was allegedly dedicated in a resort room on the Taman Ipoh Commercial Centre, Jalan Dato Lau Pak Kuan, right here, at 10.53am on Feb 28.
He was charged below Section 16(b)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable below Section 24(1) of the identical legislation, which offers for a most jail time period of 20 years and a positive of not lower than 5 occasions the whole worth of the bribe or RM10,000 whichever is greater.
Ding additionally pleaded not responsible to another cost of providing the identical quantity of bribe to the identical TNB officer as an inducement to keep away from authorized motion being taken below Section 378 of the Penal Code in opposition to the premises operator for allegedly stealing electrical energy across the Klang Valley to hold out the bitcoin mining actions.
He was charged with committing the offence on the similar location and time below Section 214 of the Penal Code.
The choose allowed the accused a bail of RM200,000 in two sureties and imposed further circumstances that the accused should report back to the Ipoh MACC workplace as soon as a month and give up his passport to the courtroom.
The courtroom then mounted April 25 for point out.
Last Tuesday (March 1), MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki revealed electrical energy theft by a bitcoin mining syndicate from 2018 to 2021 had prompted losses of over RM2.3bil to the federal government.
Following that, the MACC detained 18 native males, together with the syndicate’s mastermind, aged between their 30s and 60s, in a nationwide operation. – Bernama
