JOHOR BARU, Nov 14 — Three company directors pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court here today to multiple charges of deceit by submitting false documents to the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to claim the incentive under the Hiring Incentive Programme, two years ago.

S. Ramamoorthy, 41, the director of a company operating a tuition centre, was charged with three counts of deceit by submitting three employee verification forms that included the names of individuals who were not his workers to the Socso staff at its Johor Baru office.

He allegedly submitted one form on May 25 and two forms on May 26, 2021, to claim an incentive amounting to RM74,120 under the programme.

Ramamoorthy was charged under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act, which is punishable by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a fine of five times the sum or value of the gratification, or RM10,000 whichever is higher, upon conviction.

MACC prosecuting officer Rais Adha Ramli appeared for the prosecution, while the accused was represented by lawyer Amarpreet Singh Rajwinder Singh.

Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Arifin Ismail allowed bail of RM15,000 with one surety and for Ramamoorthy’s passport to be surrendered to the court and set the next case mention for December 14.

In the same court, two import-export company directors, P. Poowesna, 35, and A. Mohana Sundharam, 34, also pleaded not guilty to deceiving the staff at Johor Baru Socso office by submitting four false claims that included names of individuals who were not their workers under the Hiring Incentive programme, amounting to RM62,120 on May 30, 2021.

They were charged under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act, which is punishable by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a fine of five times the sum or value of the gratification, or RM10,000 whichever is higher, upon conviction.

Judge Ahmad Kamal allowed Poowesna bail of RM5,000 with one surety and Mohana Sundharam a bail of RM8,000 with one surety, and the additional condition of reporting to the Johor Baru MACC office once a month.

The next case mention was set for December 14, for the submission of documents. — Bernama