The three individuals charged were Dato' Chee Kok Wing and Shamsul Khalid bin Ismail, both directors of NasionCom, and Mah Soon Chai, a shareholder of Express Top-Up Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of NasionCom.
The Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) also preferred one charge against Dato' Chee for authorising the making of false statements in NasionCom Sdn Bhd's documents, namely invoices, dealer agreements, ledgers and bank deposit slips.
Dato' Chee is being charged with two offences under the securities law and one offence under the Companies Act 1965:
- under s55(1)(a) of the Securities Commission Act 1993 (SCA) for causing the issuance of NasionCom Prospectus for listing on the MESDAQ Market, which contained misleading information. This offence is punishable under s55(3) of the SCA which carries a maximum penalty of RM3 million fine or 10 years imprisonment or both;
- under s122B(a)(bb) Securities Industry Act 1983 (SIA) read together with s122 of the same Act, in his capacity as a director, is deemed to have submitted false information to the SC contained in the 2005 Annual Report of NasionCom, in particular, its revenue for the FYE 31 December 2005. This offence is punishable under s122B of the SIA, which carries a maximum fine of RM3 million or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both; and
- under s364(2) of the Companies Act 1965 for authorising the making of false statements in the documents of NasionCom Sdn Bhd which are required to be kept under s167(1) of the Companies Act 1965. These false statements were used for the preparation of NasionCom's Financial Statement for the FYE 31 December 2005. This offence is punishable under s364(2) of the Companies Act 1965 which carries a maximum imprisonment of 10 years or RM250,000 fine.
Shamsul Khalid is charged in his capacity as director of NasionCom and therefore is deemed to have committed the offence under section
s122B(a)(bb) SIA read together with s122 of the same Act.
Mah Soon Chai is charged for abetting NasionCom to submit the false information and therefore having committed an offence under section
s122B(a)(bb) SIA read together with s122C of the same Act.
On conviction, Shamsul Khalid and Mah Soon Chai are liable to pay a maximum fine of RM3 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
The Court has ordered the cases to be jointly tried on 21 to 23 November 2007. The Court granted bail to the accused persons in the following amount with one surety and their respective passports to be surrendered to the court:
- Dato' Chee Kok Wing: RM200,000
- Shamsul Khalid bin Ismail: RM100,000
- Mah Soon Chai: RM50,000
The prosecution of these three individuals follows the SC's action on 15 February 2007 where it publicly reprimanded NasionCom and directed the company to rectify and re-issue its financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2005.
