Penang BERNAS officers among 13 arrested for CBT involving RM9.5 million

Thirteen individuals, including several Penang Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) officers, were detained in connection with criminal breach of trust involving RM9.5 million.

Penang Commercial Crimes CID chief ACP Abdul Ghani Ahmad said the men, aged between 35 and 50, were detained separately in the state from March 14 to Tuesday.

"We set up a special team to investigate the case after receiving a police report from BERNAS on criminal breach of trust on March 14. We detained a BERNAS officer at his place of work on March 14, before arresting the others including several more BERNAS officers in stages to help investigations," he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

It is learnt that four BERNAS officers had been detained by the special police team.

Abdul Ghani said apart from BERNAS officers, others detained in the special operation comprised lorry drivers and rice sellers.

He said police also seized several items including cars, branded watches and laptops.

Based on preliminary investigations, their modus operandi was to sneak out rice from the warehouse without the knowledge of the management and sell it to middlemen, he said.

"Police investigations also found those detained had their own separate roles and believed to be involved in the activity for about two years," he said.

He said police are carrying out an in-depth investigating into the case and looking for several others who could be involved in the case.

-- BERNAMA