Is it worthwhile to have face, identity viralled online for embezzling a mere RM60k?

Focus Malaysia

5 hours ago

'BERSIH, cekap dan amanah.' (Clean, efficient and trustworthy)
Once upon a time, that was the creed many Malaysian employers looked for in staff. They still do but with less success perhaps as highlighted in a post on Facebook (FB).
Detailing how a staff has embezzled RM60,000 of his company's funds, Man Chong who is the founder of SOFAMANN – a furniture outlet with two branches in Kuantan and Bentong (Pahang) respectively – exposed the alleged suspect's name, photo and identity card number alongside a warning to others to NOT hire this man.
Editor's Note: More details of the nature of embezzlement can be found on the Instagram video shared by Man Chong
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by MAN CHONG (@man.sofamann)
The poster went on to leave an invitation for the alleged thief to have a dialogue on how to re-pay the stolen funds. But somehow one gets the feeling that such invite will not be taken up.
That Man Chong's FB post has since generated almost 9.6K likes, 562 comments and nearly 1.9K shares at the time of writing is itself an indication that the alleged crook's face and identity are going viral.
Assuming that the allegations are true, it does make one wonder why one would push his luck to steal such a meagre amount of money. For RM60,000, he now has a police report lodged against him with his reputation in tatters as news of his misdeeds go viral.
This was when some netizens counselled that the most dangerous person in any organisation is the one who knows the inner workings of a company intimately. That the poster wholly nodded would insinuate that the alleged crook fell within this category.
However, one commenter pointed out that it was whether a person has a fear of God. Such a person would not steal even if they knew the inner workings of a company.
This being Malaysia, racial stereotyping is never far from the surface. One commenter claimed that such incidences usually involved Malays who would also 'steal' the boss's spouse!
But this observation was quickly repudiated by others who postulated that such criminal-types came from all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities.
One netizen shared an incident whereby a staff absconded with an even smaller amount of RM30,000. Most illogical, she claimed, is that the customer willingly transferred the money into the embezzler's personal account just to save RM5,000 in the pretext of staff purchase (the wrongdoer has since fled to Thailand)!
Lodge a police report, counselled one netizen. That way other companies are alerted that the person has a criminal record, hence will not hire him.
Given the way the internet – and in particular social media works – it would be no surprise if the alleged embezzler is apprehended or at least spotted elsewhere. Is it worth it having a criminal record or having reputation tarnished for such a sum?
It would appear that there are those who are willing to risk it regardless of online infamy.
One netizen gave the most damning verdict of all by pointing out that nobody these days is 100% trustworthy.
Sad but true. – June 18, 2025