Former MUIS director sentenced to seven weeks for misusing school funds and email breach

Former MUIS senior director Razak Mohamed Lazim, 59, was convicted of cheating Temasek Foundation International of nearly S$785,000 and of unauthorized access to a madrasah’s email server, resulting in a seven-week jail sentence. While serving as manager of Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah, he arranged for a publisher’s royalty payment of S$185,300 to be sent to Irsyad Trust Limited, a company where he was an executive director, instead of the school’s account, and the school’s share of S$68,629 was never transferred.

Lazim later returned S$70,000 to the publisher but did not remit the remaining amount, leaving the madrasah without funds for two years. He also created a new email account and set forwarding rules after resigning, violating server access rules. The judge rejected the defence’s claim of oversight, emphasizing the premeditated nature of the offences. Lazim intends to appeal the verdict.