KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): Two former directors of Kosmo Technology Industrial Bhd and a former accounts manager were acquitted by the High Court today, of allegedly giving false information to Bursa Malaysia Securities Sdn Bhd 14 years ago, as their convictions were unsafe.
Justice Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin said this in allowing the appeal of Kosmo Technology's former managing director Datuk Norhamzah Nordin, former director Mohd Azham Mohd Noor and former accounts manager Helen Lim Hai Loon.
“This court found that the Sessions Court judge, who was the trial judge, had erred as the lower court did not consider the testimony of the fourth defence witness, who was a public audit committee official of the company.
“In a trial, the court should give due consideration of all the testimonies of the witnesses as required under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). The court found the trial judge did not consider the fourth defence witness' testimony and this resulted in serious prejudice to all the accused,” he said.
Justice Jamil said the failure of misdirection warranted this court's intervention.
“The trial judge not considering the testimony of that witness had resulted in serious unjust for them to be acquitted. For this reason, I find that their convictions are unsafe as stipulated under Section 173 (m) of the CPC, and their appeal is allowed,” he said.
Justice Jamil also directed the court to return all three fines that they had already paid.
It was reported that Norhamzah and Mohd Azham were each sentenced to pay a fine of RM1.45 million and serve a two-year jail term for furnishing false statements in relation to Kosmo's revenue figures in its unaudited quarterly reports for 2006 and 2007.
Lim, meanwhile, was fined RM560,000 and ordered to serve a one-year jail term for abetting the two men in committing the offences.
All three were initially acquitted by the Sessions Court, but upon appeal by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), the High Court ordered them to enter into their defence and they were subsequently convicted by the Sessions Court in May last year.
They were charged in 2011 with eight counts of furnishing false statements to Bursa in relation to Kosmo’s revenue figures in its unaudited quarterly reports for 2006 and 2007.
“The revenue figures ranged from RM7 million to RM40 million,” the SC said in a statement previously.
Norhamzah and Mohd Azham were represented by Datuk C Vignesh Kumar, who appeared with Daniel Annamalai, while PG Cyril and Magita Hari Mogan appeared for Lim.
Vignesh Kumar in his submissions for Norhamzah and Mohd Azham last October said the convictions were unsafe due to the prosecution not having called in as to who imputed the data on the revenue in the computer programme or test whether the programme was in good working condition.
“Furthermore, it was the company's chief financial officer (CFO) who brought the accounts to the audit committee,” he added.
Vignesh Kumar said his clients cannot be faulted for the apparent false information by being directors of the company, considering that they did not know where the false information came from.
The prosecution's failure to verify that the computerised accounting system was in proper working condition, and to produce a certificate verifying the system was in a good working order, created doubt on the prosecution case, he argued.
The counsel also said the testimony of the company's CFO should not have been accepted by the court as he was an interested party and wanted to shift the blame to the two former directors.
SC's Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) Shoba Venu Gobal and Hashley Tajudin appeared for the prosecution.