Notorious Con Artist Nicky Liow Pleads Not Guilty to 26 Counts of Money Laundering
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One of Malaysia’s most wanted men, Nicky Liow Soon Hee was charged with committing 26 counts of money laundering totalling more than RM36 million.
According to a report in the Star, Liow claimed trial to 25 charges amounting to over RM36mil under Section 4(1)(a) and one charge under section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act.
The 34-year-old reportedly surrendered to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) of federal police in Kuala Lumpur yesterday after being on the run from the police for over a year.
During the court proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Rozaliana Zakaria has asked Sessions Court judge Helina Sulaiman to not allow a bail as the founder of the investment management company Winner Dynasty Group committed unbailable offenses not to mention that there’s a risk of him escaping.
The defence counsel Datuk Rajpal Singh however, said the accused should be given bail of RM500,000 or less than RM1 million with two sureties as he surrendered himself voluntarily.
Helina later allowed a bail of RM1 million and instructed the self-proclaimed philanthropist to surrender his passport to the court as well as to report to CCID once every two weeks.
Helina set May 26 for case management.
Liow was represented by counsels Rajpal, Jay Moy Wei Jiun and Mardhiyah Siraj while Rozaliana prosecuted with DPPs Noor Zalizan Lazarous and Syafinas Shabudin.
Liow, a former Datuk Seri, is notorious for heading one of the biggest Macau scam syndicates in the country.
His title was revoked by the Pahang palace after his illegal activities came to light.
A Malay Mail report dated late last year mentioned that Liow’s large-scale money laundering operations and commercial crime cases began eight years ago and police has tracked down his billion ringgit scam network in a massive operation with the arrest of 68 suspects.
The report said the suspects were arrested in in a massive crackdown called Ops Pelican 3.0 which consisted of 70 police raids conducted by a task force comprising some 220 police personnel nationwide between March 20 and March 28 last year.
Police reportedly seized an estimated RM773,145 and 35 cars worth RM8.86 million.
Police also managed to freeze 41 bank accounts believed used for unlawful activities.
The report further said that the syndicate targeted investors from China by promising them huge returns through investments in cryptocurrency, real estate and the foreign exchange market.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador was quoted in the report as saying that that Liow has alleged ties with transnational organised crime leader known as Wan Kouk-koi also known as Broken Tooth.