Six immigration officers among 12 arrested over Malaysian Immigration System hacking
KUALA LUMPUR (July 29): Six immigration officers were among 12 individuals arrested in an operation to dismantle a syndicate involved in hacking the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs) to unlawfully process and approve Temporary Employment Visit Pass (PLKS) applications on Tuesday (July 28).
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abd Halim Aman said the immigration officers arrested included two from the Immigration Department’s Information Technology Division, while the other suspects comprised two company directors, three foreign nationals and a police officer.
He said all the suspects, aged between their 30s and 40s, were arrested between 2pm and 5pm at the MACC headquarters and the Immigration office in Penang in a joint operation by the two agencies.
“Preliminary investigations found that the syndicate exploited the 2011 PLKS quota without paying the levy required for the passes issued.
“A total of 1,306 fraudulent PLKS passes were issued, resulting in estimated losses of RM2.4 million to the government,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Abd Halim said searches were also conducted at company premises, as well as immigration offices in Penang and Putrajaya.
He said the operation stemmed from intelligence-sharing between the MACC Intelligence Division and the Immigration Department Intelligence Division, with investigations carried out since May across the Klang Valley and Penang.
Abd Halim said the operation was conducted with the assistance of CyberSecurity Malaysia and Telekom Malaysia.
All the suspects were brought before the Putrajaya Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday morning for remand applications to facilitate investigations under Sections 17(a) and 16(a) of the MACC Act 2009.
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