Bernama reported that A Rama Rao, 65, entered his plea after the charges were read to him before judge Nasir Nordin.
According to the first charge, Rama, as director of RV Global Sdn Bhd, allegedly deceived an industrial company into surrendering 3.24ha of land in Serendah, Hulu Selangor.
Rama allegedly committed the act in Shah Alam on July 18, 2007, by claiming to represent 136 former workers of Serendah Estate, whereby the company would not have surrendered the land had it not been deceived.
He was charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years, whipping and a fine upon conviction.
Under the subsequent charges, Rama was accused of direct involvement in two transfers of land ownership belonging to his company, RV Global to Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd, involving plots measuring 0.216ha and 0.6158ha, which were allegedly derived from unlawful activities.
Both transfers were allegedly carried out at the Selangor director-general of lands and mines department in Klang on July 18, 2023 and Nov 19, 2024.
He was also accused of transferring funds allegedly derived from unlawful activities amounting to sums ranging from RM24,000 to RM2 million between Dec 30, 2024 and Dec 30, 2025 into several bank accounts, including those belonging to his other companies, his wife, child, investment accounts, fixed deposit accounts and relatives.
For the two offences involving land ownership transfers, Rama was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Act 613), read together with Section 87(1)(a) of the same Act, and punishable under Section 4(1).
The remaining eight charges involving fund transfers were brought under Section 4(1)(b) of Act 613, read together with Section 87(1)(a), and punishable under Section 4(1).
The offences carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount or value of the proceeds from the unlawful activities, or RM5 million, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor Asmaa’ Zamri proposed bail of RM100,000 for all charges, with the additional conditions that Rama surrender his passport to the court, report to the MACC office and not interfere with prosecution witnesses.
Lawyer M Teeruvarasu later appealed for a reasonable bail amount, saying his client is a dialysis patient who requires hospital treatment three times a week and is the sole breadwinner for his 63-year-old wife.
The court set bail at RM80,000 with the additional conditions, and fixed June 10 for case mention.