The five individuals are Tey Por Yee, Lim Chye Guan, See Poh Yee, Francis Tan Hock Leong and Faizatul Ikmi binti Abdul Razak.
The companies involved are Nexgram Holdings Berhad, R&A Telecommunication Group Berhad, Asdion Berhad and Ire-Tex Corporation Berhad.
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, are 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 1 December 2022, 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.
The SC sought various orders in its civil suit, including orders that the defendants:
- had contravened sections 179 and 317A of the CMSA;
- pay the SC the following:
- disgorgement of all proceeds obtained from the contravention of these sections, pursuant to sections 200 and 360 of the same Act; and
- 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
- be barred from being directors of any public-listed company, and from trading on any stock exchange or derivatives exchange, for a period of ten years.
The High Court had initially fixed 12 December 2022 for the defendants to respond to the injunction application. However, following the non-appearance of the defendants, the High Court granted an
ad interim injunction and fixed 9 January 2023 for the defendants’ response.
