KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court yesterday upheld the acquittal of two former directors of Cold Storage (M) Bhd from a charge of criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving RM185 million in 1998.

Justice Datuk Nordin Hassan upheld the Sessions Court’s decision in 2011 to clear Datuk Yip Yee Foo and Datuk Chung Wai Meng of the CBT charge, saying the duo had successfully raised a reasonable doubt.

Justice Nordin said he agrees with the Sessions Court’s findings that the transaction of the money in the case was not unauthorised.

The lower court had accepted the defence’s testimony that there was a company resolution to authorise the transfer of the money from the bank acccount of CSM Capital Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Cold Storage, to Halanna Management, an investment company in the US, for investment purposes.

The court went on to find that the transfer of the money to CSM Capital before it was transferred to Halanna Management was not an unauthorised act.

Yip, 58, and Chung, 52, had been alternatively charged with misusing the RM185 million by transferring it from the company’s bank account at Deutsche Bank (M) Bhd to the bank account of Cycle & Carriage Ltd at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore for the purchase of share units by Excoplex Sdn Bhd and Fulham Finance and Trade Ltd.

If convicted under Section 409 of the Penal Code, they would have faced a jail sentence of up to 20 years, a fine and caning.

Yip was represented by lawyer Ng Aik Guan, and Chung by Gobind Singh Deo, while deputy public prosecutor Rozmawar Rozain of the Securities Commission Malaysia prosecuted.