KUALA LUMPUR (May 13): After paying the RM16 million total in compounds issued by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) earlier this week, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd and its four top executives are given a discharge and acquittal.
This happened in the Sessions Court on Friday (May 13) morning when the four top executives were in the court, including the company's controlling shareholder Datuk Dr Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah, who is also the group managing director and chief executive officer.
The others given an acquittal were executive director Datuk Syed Nazim Syed Faisal, group chief financial officer (CFO) Azhan Azmi, and vice-president of accounts and finance Muhammad Hafiz Othman.
Mohd Abdul Karim, Syed Nazim (who was the CFO between June 2016 and mid-2020), Azhan and Hafiz were each charged under Section 369(a)(B), read together with Section 367(1), of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 for submitting a false statement involving a revenue of RM6.01 billion for the company's 12-month financial period ended Dec 31, 2020.
Mohd Abdul Karim, Syed Nazim and Azhan were represented by counsel Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, who confirmed with theedgemarkets.com that his clients were given a discharge and acquittal.
Mohd Abdul Karim and Azhan had the proceedings heard before Sessions Court Judge Kamaruddin Kamsun.
Syed Nazim had his proceedings heard before Sessions Court Judge Ahmad Kamar Jamaluddin, while Serba Dinamik appeared before Sessions Court Judge Emelia Kaswati Mohamad Khalid and Hafiz before Sessions Court Judge Sabariah Othman.
SC Deputy Public Prosecutors Hashley Tajudin, Zul’aida Zulkifli and Izzat Fauzan appeared for the prosecution.
The executives were initially charged last December and their lawyers had sent the representation letters, which were accepted by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) despite criticisms.
On Thursday, it was reported that the four senior executives had paid the compounds totalling RM16 million, where each of them in addition to Serba Dinamik were slapped with RM3 million each.
Hafiz had an additional RM1 million compound imposed on him for falsifying the accounting records of a Serba Dinamik subsidiary.
The AGC was said to have accepted a conditional representation last month following the legal representation made by the company.
The SC previously indicated that it issued the compound notices after the AGC allowed the representation on the charges.
Hence, the company was required to pay the compound originally scheduled for April 28 before it was extended to May 11.
It is understood that the payment was made via cheque on Monday.