PUTRAJAYA, July 31 — The Immigration Department will cancel all Temporary Employment Visit Passes (PLKS) found to have been approved by syndicates linked to the hacking of the Immigration Department’s online immigration system (MyIMMs) through the recent Op Crack.
Its director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said they will track down all pass holders before enforcement action is taken.
“All PLKS approved will be cancelled, and we will track down those believed to be involved in their respective work sectors.
"For the time being, they have been identified to be in certain locations that cannot be revealed as they might escape,” he said during a media conference with Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abd Halim Aman at the MACC headquarters today.
Zakaria added that the illegal approvals of PLKS were detected early this year but were not stopped immediately as they were gathering intelligence to identify the mastermind.
“This matter cannot happen if it did not involve ‘people on the inside’…we found them installing dongles on computers and using administrator usernames to create new usernames to approve the PLKS,” he said.
Two companies are suspected to be involved in the application and approval of illegal PLKS, but Zakaria did not reveal their identities.
"The MACC has also called four individuals to record their statements and will call several more as witnesses to assist investigations,” he said, noting that more arrests and seizures will be conducted soon.
Meanwhile, Halim said Op Crack started as a result of the sharing of intelligence between the Immigration Department and the MACC since May before it was conducted on Tuesday (July 28), involving the MACC Intelligence Division’s Special Projects Branch, the Immigration Intelligence Division, the Malaysian Securities Commission, Telekom Malaysia, the National Cyber Security Agency, and the MACC Technology Forensics Division.
The MACC had earlier detained 12 individuals: four Immigration officers and two Immigration Technology Information Division officers, two company directors, three foreigners and a police officer, aged in their 30s to 40s, on suspicion of being involved in the hacking and illegal approval of PLKS.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the syndicate had approved 1,306 fake PLKS under the 2011 quota without payment of the pass levy, resulting in estimated losses of RM2.4 million to the government.
The syndicate also paid Immigration officers involved between RM1,000 and RM6,000 for each PLKS approval.
The MACC also seized movable property, including currencies of RM186,000 and SGD700, jewellery worth RM15,700, electronic gadgets worth RM36,000, seven 0.2g gold bars, one 2g gold bar, a gold necklace, a gold bangle, and a gold keychain with an estimated total of RM15,700, while the freezing of individual and company bank accounts is underway.
He said that they will request remand extensions for all 12 individuals, as their remand periods end today.
