The US Department of Justice has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) with misappropriating over $20 million from the state-owned telecom firm.
The accused – Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof, and Khanh Thuong Nguyen – were executives at TM's US subsidiary. They allegedly used false statements and forged records to siphon funds between July 2020 and February 2026.
FBI Assistant Director James Barnacle called it a deliberate embezzlement scheme. Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco airport; the other two surrendered last month.
The company self-reported the misconduct and cooperated, so charges were not filed against TM itself. The defendants face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
They are accused of diverting millions into personal accounts, inflating cable costs, and even using AI to impersonate employees and capture salaries.
