KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), which is mandated to regulate the capital market, is understood to have lodged a police report against beleaguered oil and gas company Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd on Saturday (April 23).
The SC is understood to have lodged the report at the Jalan Travers police station, alleging that Serba Dinamik’s announcement to Bursa Malaysia on Thursday (which included an attachment, a 26-page filing entitled the court order dated Feb 7, 2022) is in breach of Section 499 of the Penal Code, which covers criminal defamation.
At the time of writing on Saturday, the SC had yet to reply to queries sent by theedgemarkets.com on the police report.
A source close to the SC, however, said that the regulator views the 26-page filing “as an attempt to intimidate” and prevent the commission from carrying out its duties.
On Thursday, Serba Dinamik questioned the SC’s motive of pressing charges against a select few (two directors and two executives), but not the entire board of the company, in what is alleged to be false revenue of RM6.01 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2020 (FY20).
“This is for the SC to explain,” Serba Dinamik said.
The oil and gas outfit, which was at one time the darling of investors, also challenged the SC to provide documentation exhibiting how RM6.01 billion in revenue was entered into the company's ledgers, how such entries were false statements, and questioned how the FY20 revenue figure alone, in the announcement of the company's fourth-quarter results, could have been tampered with, noting that it was the cumulative revenue figure for the four quarters of the year.
“It is therefore surprising that the SC does not allege that the revenue figures for the first, second and third quarters were false,” said Serba Dinamik.
Serba Dinamik also claimed that the SC had threatened its staff, offering to drop charges against them if they become witnesses against the company and its management.
Also in question is why investigations are still being carried out even after the charges have been made.
Since end-May last year, Serba Dinamik has been battling the SC, Bursa, its former auditors KPMG and even Ernst & Young Consulting Sdn Bhd, which was roped in to conduct a special independent review of the company and reveal factual findings updates on issues KPMG had flagged.
While the regulators have sought legal redress against Serba Dinamik and its officials, the company has also fought back, but thus far it has been unsuccessful in its legal pursuits.
Last December, the SC pressed charges against Serba Dinamik's directors and officers for submitting false information to Bursa, an offence under Section 369(a)(B) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA), and secured a warrant of arrest against the company’s chief executive officer and group managing director Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah.
Earlier this month, criminal charges against four of Serba Dinamik’s top executives including Mohd Abdul Karim were substituted for a RM3 million compound meted out to each of them. The criminal charges that the four executives faced were made under Section 369(a)(B) of the CMSA, which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years and a maximum fine of RM3 million if one is convicted of the offence.