Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Mukhzany Fariz Mokhtar said news reports claiming that the SFC had received RM700,000 in bribes were based on inaccurate information given to the press.
He said the accused, SFC Lim Cheah Yit, 42, only received RM100,000 as a bribe, and that too in an entrapment set up by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with marked bills.
Mukhzany said given that Lim did not receive a single sen, but had merely solicited and received the bribe, the RM130,000 fine and a day in jail was fair punishment, given the facts of the case that were presented at the sessions court.
In explaining the three charges against Lim, Mukhzany said the first charge was an offence for asking for a RM500,000 bribe from one Goh Kim Seong at a karaoke outlet on Gurney Drive.
This, he said, was to induce the SFC to charge a man named Chan Eng Leong for cheating. At that time, Lim was a prosecutor at the attorney-general’s chambers’ office in Penang.
The second charge was for negotiating and accepting a lower offer from Goh — for just RM100,000 for the same purpose — based on the Kedah MACC’s probe into Lim.
The third charge was when Lim “received” the RM100,000 in marked bills at a hotel in Bayan Lepas during a sting operation led by MACC.
Mukhzany said Lim was charged with three counts of bribery — soliciting, accepting and physically taking the money during the entrapment — under Section 16 (a)(B) of the MACC Act 2009. He was also given an alternative charge under Section 165 of the Penal Code.
The relevant law carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ jail and a fine of not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
Under Section 165 of the Penal Code, it is an offence for a public servant to obtain any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such a public servant. It carries a penalty of a maximum of two years’ jail and/or a fine.
Lim pleaded not guilty to the MACC charge on July 6, 2020, at the sessions court in Butterworth. However, when the case was mentioned on Thursday, he pleaded guilty to the alternative charge under Section 165 of the Penal Code.
Mukhzany said after the guilty plea, Lim was sentenced to a RM50,000 fine on the first charge, RM40,000 on the second, and another RM40,000 on the third charge. He was also sentenced to a day in jail for each of the three charges.
The court also imposed three months’ jail for each charge if Lim failed to pay the fines. The court ordered the three-day jail sentence to run concurrently, so Lim only needed to serve a day in jail.
He also paid the RM130,000 fine so he does not need to spend nine months in jail in default.
Mukhzany said the earlier RM700,000 charge released to the press by an MACC officer was erroneous and hence had caused some confusion.