Securities: Malaysia convicts "cyber trader"
A court in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, has convicted a man who ran an on-line investment scheme without authorisation of securities industry offences and money laundering.
Phazaluddin Abu, 49, from Malaysia's southernmost state, Johor, ran a website called denafutures.com that invited a purported fund management business without a fund manager's licence.
Phazaluddin tried to defend his actions by saying that he was not the owner or operator of the site, but merely a web designer. But he was unable to identify his supposed client and had no documents relating to the supposed commission.
The Judge said he found the defence, which had been produced long after the investigation began, to be "unconvincing and difficult to believe." In Malaysia, trials are conducted by a judge alone as arbiter of fact and law.
“Surely, Maidin would have been billed for the work allegedly done. Further, if indeed Maidin is not a fictitious person, it is strange that the accused does not even know his full name,” said the judge.
The case has been adjourned to 7 July for mitigation and sentencing - but the Judge clearly does not expect to hear anything by way of mitigation that will reverse his view of the defendant as untruthful.
Download PDF version of this page