KUALA LUMPUR – The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has filed a civil suit in the high court here against five individuals for allegedly perpetrating a scheme to defraud and causing wrongful losses valued at RM120.6 million to four public-listed companies.
In the suit filed on November 29, the five individuals were Tey Por Yee, Lim Chye Guan, See Poh Yee, Francis Tan Hock Leong, and Faizatul Ikmi Abdul Razak.
The companies involved are Nexgram Holdings Bhd, R&A Telecommunication Group Bhd, Asdion Bhd, and Ire-Tex Corporation Bhd.
The SC alleged that Tey, Lim, See and Tan, in their various capacities as directors and officers of the four public-listed companies, siphoned out the proceeds of the companies’ fundraising exercises, while Faizatul Ikmi abetted or furthered the siphoning.
The aforesaid conduct of these individuals, which took place between December 2013 and July 2014, is in contravention of sections 317A and 179 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
Under section 317A of the CMSA, a director or an officer of a listed corporation shall not do anything with the intention of causing wrongful loss to the listed corporation.
Under section 179, a person is prohibited from engaging in fraud or deceit when subscribing, purchasing or selling any securities.
In order to prevent dissipation of the assets of the defendants, the SC had, on December 1, obtained an injunction from the Kuala Lumpur High Court to restrain Tey, Lim, See and Faizatul Ikmi from dealing with the monies in their respective bank accounts.
The SC did not seek an injunction against Tan as he is an undischarged bankrupt.
However, it is seeking the “disgorgement of all proceeds obtained from the contravention of these mentioned sections”.
It is also seeking a civil penalty of RM1 million each, or such amount as considered appropriate by the court, in accordance with section 200(2) of the CMSA, and the offenders be barred from being directors of any public-listed company, and from trading on any stock exchange or derivatives exchange, for a period of 10 years.
The high court had initially fixed today for the defendants to respond to the injunction application.
However, following the non-appearance of the defendants, the court granted an ad interim injunction and fixed January 9 for the defendants’ response. – The Vibes, December 12, 2022
