The three individuals are Gan Boon Aun, former Chief Executive Officer of TGB; Lo Chok Ping, former Chief Financial Officer of TGB; and Khiudin bin Mohd, TGB’s Executive Director. They are charged under section 86(b) read together with section 122C(c) of the Securities Industry Act 1983 (SIA).
The charge states that the misleading statement was likely to induce the purchase of TGB’s securities by other persons, and that at the time the misleading statement was made, TGB ought reasonably to have known that the statement is misleading in a material particular.
Upon conviction, the accused persons are liable under section 88B of the SIA to a fine of not less than RM1 million and imprisonment not exceeding 10 years.
Gan Boon Aun was released on bail of RM1 million. Lo Chok Ping and Khiudin bin Mohd were released on bail of RM300,000 and RM500,000 respectively, with their travel documents to be surrendered to the Court.
The case will be jointly heard on 21-25 January 2008.
Also in relation to TGB, the SC has offered compounds of RM500,000 each to two individuals, Chin Keem Feung and Shukri bin Sheikh Abdul Tawab, for an offence under section 122B(b)(bb) SIA 1983 for knowingly permitting the making of misleading statements to Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.
Both Chin Keem Feung and Shukri bin Sheikh Abdul Tawab are Independent Non-Executive Directors of TGB as well as members of TGB’s audit committee. As members of TGB’s Board of Directors they had approved the release of TGB’s reported revenue of RM338,473,000, when they knew that there were serious accounting issues in the unaudited consolidated results of TGB for the financial year ended 31 December 2006, which were raised by Deloitte & Touche (TGB’s auditors).