Three senior officials of a Telekom Malaysia subsidiary in the United States have been charged by US authorities with embezzling more than US$20 million in company funds through a fraud scheme that allegedly took place between July 2020 and February 2026.
According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof and Khanh Thuong Nguyen are accused of falsifying corporate records, using false statements and deceiving suppliers, auditors and company management for personal gain.
Authorities allege that the three individuals carried out an organized fraud scheme by diverting millions of dollars in company funds to bank accounts they controlled.
They also face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Mohd Hafiz was reportedly detained at San Francisco airport, while the other two accused surrendered to US authorities last month.
The DOJ alleged that one of the schemes involved the sale of data capacity to a US multinational company for US$54 million. However, only six terabytes of capacity were actually purchased even though TM was informed that eight terabytes were needed.
The excess capacity was then allegedly resold to other parties before the proceeds were diverted through a fake entity.
In addition, the defendants are also accused of inflating the cost of cable purchases and diverting nearly US$2.9 million in payments to their own accounts. They are also accused of creating false reimbursement claims related to work expenses to obtain additional funds from the company.
In another development, the DOJ also alleged that the three individuals posed as employees and interns to obtain salary payments.
In fact, the authorities alleged that AI technology was used to generate fake identities to deceive the company's human resources staff.
Although an investigation is underway against the officers involved, the DOJ stated that it did not file charges against Telekom Malaysia after the company reportedly fully cooperated and self-reported the offense to US authorities.
