The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) for allegedly misappropriating more than US$20 million from the state-linked telecommunications company.
The accused — Hafiz Lockman, Yuzaimi Yusof and Khanh Thuong Nguyen — were senior executives at TM’s US subsidiary. They are alleged to have used falsified statements and forged documents to divert company funds and mislead suppliers, auditors and other stakeholders between July 2020 and February 2026.
According to FBI assistant director in charge James C Barnacle Jr, the trio is said to have carried out a deliberate and coordinated scheme involving falsified corporate records for personal financial gain.
Hafiz was reportedly arrested at San Francisco International Airport, while the other two surrendered to authorities last month. All three have been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The DoJ said it will not pursue charges against TM itself, as the company had self-reported the misconduct and pledged full cooperation with investigators.
In the indictment, authorities alleged that millions of dollars were diverted from TM into accounts controlled by the defendants. In one instance, TM was reportedly led to approve the sale of eight terabytes of capacity for US$54 million, when only six terabytes were actually purchased.
The excess capacity was allegedly resold to other companies, with proceeds channelled through a shell entity controlled by the suspects.
They are also accused of inflating costs for cable purchases, redirecting about US$2.9 million into personal accounts, and submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims for fake work expenses.
Investigators further allege that the accused impersonated employees and interns to draw salaries, and in one case used AI-assisted impersonation tools to deceive human resources personnel.
