US charges three Malaysian state telecoms officials for multimillion-dollar fraud

KUALA LUMPUR:  The United States has charged ​three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) for allegedly misappropriating over $20 million from the ‌Malaysian state ​telecommunications firm, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof, and Khanh Thuong Nguyen, who were senior executives at the U.S. subsidiary of TM, were accused of using false statements and forged records to siphon funds from the company and deceive counterparties, suppliers, auditors and supervisors in ⁠the United States on various occasions between July 2020 and February 2026, authorities said.”These three individuals are alleged to have conducted a deliberate and calculated embezzlement scheme, falsifying corporate records for their own financial benefit,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge ‌James C. Barnacle, Jr. said in a statement.Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco airport, while the other two accused turned themselves in to authorities last month. The trio ‌were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity ‌theft, the DOJ said.Mohd Hafiz, Mohd Yuzaimi and Nguyen could not ‌be immediately reached for comment.TM said ‌in a statement that the trio were dismissed from the firm after an internal investigation into suspected misconduct, with ​the probe findings later ‌shared with relevant authorities.The ​company would continue to fully cooperate ⁠with the DOJ, it said.The DOJ said it declined to file charges against TM itself, after the company self-reported the criminal conduct. Reuters reported in March that the ​department was rolling ⁠out a policy to ⁠encourage firms to report criminal misconduct in exchange for reduced penalties and other benefits.The defendants were accused of diverting millions of dollars from TM into bank accounts ⁠they controlled, according to the U.S. indictment.On one occasion, TM was asked to approve a sale of eight terabytes of capacity to a U.S. multinational for $54 million, when in fact only six terabytes were purchased.The defendants then allegedly sold the excess capacity to other companies, diverting funds from the illicit sales ‌through a sham entity, the DOJ said.They were also accused of inflating the cost of cable purchases, redirecting ​nearly $2.9 million in payments to a bank account they controlled, and allegedly claimed reimbursements for fabricated work expenses, it said.The three also allegedly impersonated employees and interns to capture their salaries, and on one occasion used an AI-assisted imposter to deceive ​human resources staff, the DOJ said.