Among the items he bought with the money were a house in Kota Warisan, Sepang; two plots of land in Jerantut, Pahang; luxury watches, vehicles and high-speed motorcycles.
According to the facts of the case, Shahrum, who started his career with MACC in 2005, joined the operation, known as Ops Dinar 2, to investigate Hasanah on Aug 26, 2018.
A total of US$6.94 million in cash had been seized during the investigation and handed over to the investigating officer, Khirulnizam Sulaiman, to be kept in a safebox at the MACC headquarters.
However, on Dec 17, 2018, Shahrum asked his colleagues in charge of the safebox to hand over to him part of the money for purposes of “calculation” and “verification” .
The colleagues gave him a sum of US$1.9 million as instructed.
Another MACC officer, Falihin Ahmad Fadillah, affirmed that Shahrum took a sum of US$800,000 from the US$1.9 million and returned US$1.1 million to the headquarters.
The facts also showed that Shahrum took US$400,000 out of the US$800,000 and had it converted to about RM1.6 million.
Shahrum then used the RM1.6 million to invest in a timber business.
Between April 9, 2019 and June 19, 2019, Shahrum took the remaining US$6.14 million and converted some US$2.47 million to local currency, obtaining more than RM9.8 million from a moneychanger.
In September the same year, he handed over US$4.07 million to a man for investment purposes.
Prime Minister’s Department rejected ‘fake’ money
In April last year, Hasanah was given a discharge not amounting to acquittal in her RM50 million criminal breach of trust (CBT) case by the High Court.
Several months later, the magistrates’ court ordered the US$6.94 million seized during Ops Dinar 2 to be returned to the prime minister’s department.
Despite repeated requests from Khirulnizam to return the money, Shahrum failed to do so. It was only on Sept 10, 2021 that Khirulnizam took the initiative to open up the safebox so MACC could return the money to the department.
However, when MACC handed over the cash, officials at the prime minister’s department raised their suspicion on the authenticity of the notes, claiming it was “fake money”, and refused to accept the cash.
A senior officer, Rostam Affendi Salleh, then wrote to MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki to inform him of their doubts. A police report was also lodged by MACC, naming Shahrum, Khirulnizam and two others as suspects in the alleged wrongdoing.
Shahrum was subsequently arrested.
In the course of their investigation, police found that he had used the seized cash and made several purchases, including:
- A RM750,000 house in Kota Warisan, Sepang;
- Luxury watches totalling RM397,580;
- Two Ducati motorcycles worth RM600,000;
- A Ford Raptor;
- Two plots of land in Jerantut, Pahang, worth RM483,220;
- A Honda Civic costing RM265,930; and
- A Mercedes Benz A250 costing RM130,000.
The court ordered all the assets to be forfeited by the government.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib appeared for the prosecution while Shahrum was represented by lawyers Abdul Hafiz A Bakar, Ponnusamy Kalaichelvan and Fikah Sanusi.
Sessions court judge Suzana Hussin had earlier sentenced Shahrum to three years in prison and ordered him to be caned twice after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of dishonest misappropriation of the US$6.94 million under Section 403 of the Penal Code.