29 June 2019
Ab Mutalif Hashim was chairman of the mosque’s management board between 2003 and August 2010, and continued as voluntary chairman for another two-and-a-half years. He was appointed by Muis.
While he was Chairman, he instructed volunteers and caretakers to place donation chests and containers in his office after prayer sessions for safekeeping.
Over a period of seven years he helped himself to more than S$370,000 of the donations. On 1 March 2019, he pleaded guilty to six counts of criminal breach of trust. On 24 April 2019 he was jailed for two years and three months.
After taking the money, he would ask the volunteers and caretakers to count the remainder of the cash, which he would then record in the mosque’s accounting system and deposit into the mosque’s bank account.
In a surprise move, the court heard that between October 2011 and February 2012, a sole proprietorship called Middle Way Services, registered in the name of Ab Mutalif’s wife, donated five cheques amounting to S$130,848 for the mosque’s toilet renovation. It is not clear whether Ab Mutalif had a hand in the donation.
After he stepped down, Muis (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore) found that the donations went up from as low as S$10,000 to as high of S$60,000 a month. Muis also conducts regular independent audits on all mosques to ensure compliance with the financial regulations.
He deposited most of the money into his personal bank account, the bank account of Just Parenting Association, as well as the account of someone called Aiffah Ahmad. More than S$160,000 went into Ms Aiffah’s account. He drew a monthly salary of S$7,000 as the executive director of Just Parenting Association.
Ab Mutalif Hashim
He concurrently held positions at two registered charities — Just Parenting Association, as well as the Association for Devoted and Active Family Men.
In December 2013, when the police seized Ab Mutalif’s personal bank account, it had a balance of around S$97,000.
Today on line reported.
