BANDAR PERMAISURI, May 23 — A lorry driver has been detained on suspicion of using forged permits to purchase subsidised petrol for sale to industrial operators.

Terengganu Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN) director Mohd Mufsi Lat said the local man, in his 30s, was detained during an Ops Tiris 4.0 raid conducted at a petrol station in Merang near here at 7.30 am today.

He said two drums containing 500 litres of subsidised petrol worth approximately RM1,600 were also seized during the operation.

“Surveillance and intelligence gathering were conducted for two weeks after suspicious activities involving subsidised controlled goods were detected at the petrol station.

“Inspections found that the lorry driver, who works with a travel agency, had 10 permits, eight of which were found to be invalid or fake,” he told a press conference here today, adding that items seized during the operation, including a lorry, were valued at RM46,800.

Mohd Mufsi said the modus operandi involved making purchases up to four times a day using permits left at petrol stations, enabling fuel to be filled into drums.

He added that the case was being investigated under the Control of Supplies Act 1961 (Act 122).

Meanwhile, Mohd Mufsi said Terengganu KPDN had recorded 10 cases involving seizures amounting to RM220,409.70 under Ops Tiris 4.0, which was carried out from March 16 until yesterday.

“The Terengganu KPDN has also carried out 1,614 inspection operations at various premises and petrol stations across the state since March 16,” he said. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — The United States has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) for allegedly misappropriating over US$20 million (RM79.56 million) from the Malaysian state telecommunications firm, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof, and Khanh Thuong Nguyen, who were senior executives at the US subsidiary of TM, 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 on various occasions between July 2020 and February 2026, authorities said.

“These three individuals are alleged to have conducted a deliberate and calculated embezzlement scheme, falsifying corporate records for their own financial benefit,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr said in a statement.

Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco airport, while the other two accused turned themselves in to authorities last month. The trio were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, the DOJ said.

Mohd Hafiz, Mohd Yuzaimi and Nguyen could not be immediately reached for comment. TM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DOJ said it declined to file charges against TM itself, after the company self-reported the criminal conduct and pledged to cooperate with authorities.

Reuters reported in March that the department was rolling out a policy to encourage firms to report criminal misconduct in exchange for reduced penalties and other benefits.

The defendants were accused of diverting millions of dollars from TM into bank accounts they controlled, according to the US indictment.

On one occasion, TM was asked to approve a sale of eight terabytes of capacity to a US multinational for US$54 million, when in fact only six terabytes were purchased.

The defendants then allegedly sold the excess capacity to other companies, diverting funds from the illicit sales through a sham entity, the DOJ said.

They were also accused of inflating the cost of cable purchases, redirecting nearly US$2.9 million in payments to a bank account they controlled, and allegedly claimed reimbursements for fabricated work expenses, it said.

The three also allegedly impersonated employees and interns to capture their salaries, and on one occasion used an AI-assisted imposter to deceive human resources staff, the DOJ said. — Reuters 

A wedding photographer has been ordered to hand over images after allegedly defrauding hundreds of couples out of an estimated $1 million in total in a case that has shaken North Carolina.

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The United States is offering a reward of up to US$10 million (S$12.7 million) for information about the Tai Chang Scam Centres in Myanmar.

This was first announced on April 23, when the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said that the reward would be offered under the country’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program for “information leading to the seizure or recovery of funds involved in money laundering related to scams” operated out of the s`cam centres.

The endeavour is being carried out in support of the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, which was formed in 2025 to target scam operations, recover stolen assets, and prevent further victimisation.

The announcement underlined that Southeast Asia’s transnational criminal organisations have increasingly been targeting victims in the United States via large-scale cyber scam operations. It has been estimated that more than US$7.2 billion (around S$9.2 billion) was lost last year due to these scam operations.

It added that Tai Chang, which is located in Myanmar’s Karen State, is a series of compounds conducting online fraud schemes, in particular, cryptocurrency investment fraud. The coordinates for the compounds were identified here.

Cryptocurrency investment fraud, also known as “pig butchering,” is one of the fastest-growing and most damaging forms of cybercrime.

Investigations carried out by the FBI have historically included tracing proceeds from funds as well as endeavours to recover the money victims have lost. As more and more criminals hold these funds in cryptocurrency, seizing digital assets “has become a powerful tool for disrupting criminal operations,” the statement said.

The US$10 million reward offer encourages the public to disclose information leading to further financial disruptions.

Two Chinese nationals who ran a scam compound in Burma and endeavoured to open another one in Cambodia were recently charged in the US, whose authorities seized a Telegram channel that was used in recruiting human trafficking victims to a scam compound in Cambodia. They also seized 503 fraudulent web domains that had been used in perpetrating cryptocurrency investment fraud.

Additionally, the US Treasury Department also announced sanctions against Cambodian senator Kok An, who is said to control scam compounds across the country, along with 28 individuals and entities in his network.

On April 30 (Thursday), it was announced that the  a coordinated government effort to combat cryptocurrency investment fraud focusing on the Tai Chang Scam enterprise would be partly led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) San Diego, together with international partners such as the FBI Legal Attaché in Bangkok, and supported by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia through its Scam Center Strike Force

US authorities have taken several actions against the network, including seizing a malicious website that impersonated a legitimate investment firm and tricked victims into downloading harmful software used to steal their funds. /TISG

Read also: US seizes scam site tied to Myanmar compound, a wake-up call for Southeast Asia’s expanding crypto fraud problem

This article (US offers S$12.7 million reward for information on Myanmar’s Tai Chang scam centers) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.