SANDAKAN – The son of a controversial politician here was charged at the special corruption court in Kota Kinabalu today with impersonating senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.
Aries Ryan Philip Among, 30, the son of former Sabah STAR leader Philip Among, pleaded not guilty to two charges under Section 419 of the Penal Code and two alternative charges under Section 417 of the same code before sessions court judge Jason Juga.
According to the charges, Aries, a businessman, is accused of defrauding his victim, Mohd Zaidi Abdullah, 60, of nearly RM50,000 by allegedly impersonating two high-ranking MACC officers through WhatsApp.
In the first charge, Aries is alleged to have posed as MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner for Operations Datuk Seri Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya when he contacted the victim via WhatsApp at 11.46am on June 24, 2023, at a house in Perumahan Desa Aman, the police headquarters here on Jalan Kepayan.
Aries later received RM8,000 from Zaidi, intended to be donated for the korban (sacrificial ritual) involving cows.
After a week, on June 30, 2023, at 11.22am, in the same location, the accused impersonated MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.
He sent WhatsApp messages to Zaidi, persuading the victim to deposit RM27,000 as a donation for Azam to attend his son’s convocation in Sydney, Australia.
At the same time, Aries, disguised as Azam, requested a loan of RM14,300 from Zaidi.
Subsequently, the victim deposited the two sums of money into separate bank accounts belonging to other individuals.
For the first and second alternative charges, Aries had allegedly cheated Zaidi through WhatsApp and induced him to bank all the money totalling RM49,300 into three different bank accounts.
Both alternative charges were made under Section 417 of the Penal Code, which provides imprisonment of up to five years, a fine, or both upon conviction.
The court fixed February 14 for case management.
Aries was granted bail of RM40,000, with RM5,000 to be deposited to the court with one local surety. He was also ordered to surrender his passport.
The case was prosecuted by deputy public prosecutor Nurul Izzati Sapifee, while the accused was represented by counsel Muhamad Amirul Amin.
The accused’s father, Philip Among, also has a pending court case involving four charges of molesting a former beauty pageant contestant.
Philip, 54, a former Sabah STAR parliamentary coordinator for Putatan, is scheduled to enter his defence on February 19, 22 and 23 of this year. – January 10, 2024