KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 30): Transmile Group Bhd founder and former chief executive officer Gan Boon Aun has absconded overseas, the High Court was informed on Wednesday. 

In case management for his appeal against a verdict by the Sessions Court last year which found him guilty of furnishing misleading financial statements to Bursa Malaysia in 2007, public prosecutors from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) had informed Justice Mohd Zaini Mazlan that he was overseas according to immigration records. 

They also informed the judge that Gan was also not represented by any legal counsel. 

The case management on Wednesday was for Gan to inform the court who he appointed as his lawyer as Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, who was his lawyer in the Sessions Court and most parts of his appeal to challenge his conviction at the Federal Court, had discharged himself.

Justice Zaini then issued a notice stating that the next date of case management will be on Oct 13. 

Gan was found guilty by the Sessions Court on Aug 27, 2020. Sessions Court judge Hasbullah Adam sentenced the 59-year-old to a RM2.5 million fine and one day in jail.

Gan has since appealed against the decision, while the prosecution from the SC is also appealing against the sentence imposed on Gan to seek a heavier sentence.

Once a darling stock on Bursa Malaysia, Transmile was caught in an Enron-esque accounting scandal in 2007 after auditors concluded that the air cargo service provider's results for the financial years ended December 2005 and 2006 were grossly overstated.

Transmile suffered losses of RM126.3 million instead of making a profit of RM157.5 million in 2006. In 2005, it chalked up losses totalling RM369.6 million instead of the RM84.4 million profit that was reported.

It was later categorised as a Practice Note 17 company in 2010, and was eventually suspended and delisted from Bursa Malaysia in 2011.