Kuala Lumpur: The United States has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) with allegedly misappropriating more than US$20 million from the Malaysian state telecommunications firm, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on May 19,
Reuters reported.
Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof and Khanh Thuong Nguyen, who were senior executives at TM’s US subsidiary, 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 between July 2020 and February 2026.
Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director in charge James Barnacle Jr said the three individuals allegedly carried out a deliberate and calculated embezzlement scheme by falsifying corporate records for personal financial gain.
The DOJ said Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco airport, while Mohd Yuzaimi and Nguyen surrendered to authorities in April, with all three charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
TM said the trio had been dismissed following an internal investigation into suspected misconduct, and that the findings were later shared with the relevant authorities.
The company said it would continue to fully cooperate with the DOJ, which also declined to file charges against TM after the firm self-reported the alleged criminal conduct and pledged cooperation with investigators.
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According to the US indictment, the defendants allegedly diverted millions of dollars from TM into bank accounts under their control, including through a purported US$54 million sale of eight terabytes of capacity to a US multinational when only six terabytes had allegedly been purchased.
The DOJ also alleged the trio inflated cable purchase costs, redirected nearly US$2.9 million in payments to accounts they controlled, claimed reimbursements for fabricated expenses, impersonated employees and interns to collect salaries, and on one occasion used an artificial intelligence-assisted imposter to deceive human resources staff.
