KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Mudajaya Group Bhd said the trial of the civil suit it brought against its former employee Michael Chua Khian Keng at the Shah Alam High Court has concluded last Thursday (July 6), with a decision scheduled to be delivered on Dec 20, 2023.

In a filing to Bursa on Tuesday (July 11), the group said the criminal case against Chua and his wife, Tan Kah Lua, which is being heard in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court, was fixed for continued trial from July 10 to 14, Aug 21 to 25 and Sept 18 to 22. 

In March 2019, Chua was charged with misappropriating funds from a power plant project amounting to RM800,000. Mudajaya was the subcontractor for the civil and structural works. The RM720 million contract was awarded in June 2011. 

The misappropriation of funds was said to be conducted through “multi-layered transactions”, deposited into a bank account jointly owned by Chua and his spouse and an individual bank account belonging to his biological brother. 

Mudajaya had previously said that it was puzzled at how Chua was charged for misappropriating only RM800,000, which is just over 1% of the stolen sum, allegedly to be some RM72 million. 

Two months later, Mudajaya's wholly-owned subsidiary Mudajaya Corp Bhd, through its solicitors, received a letter from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department informing that Chua was charged with the additional charges amounting to RM10.04 million at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court on April 12. 

Mudajaya said in a filing on May 28, 2019, said Chua and his wife were charged under Section 403 of the Penal Code for dishonest misappropriation of property. 

The case goes all the way back to 2015 when Mudajaya’s internal management working group conducted a comprehensive review of additional costs incurred on a specific project undertaken by the group which was included in the group's 2014 fourth quarter report that was announced on Feb 27, 2015. 

The working group conducting this internal investigation uncovered some irregular transactions leading to additional costs incurred on a specific project. Thus far, the information suggests that the issue is confined to an isolated case involving one former employee and is restricted to only one of its projects.  

Based on what the working group had uncovered, Mudajaya had said all costs relating to the project and thus to the financial results of the group have been fully accounted for in the company's books.

At 3.58pm, Mudajaya was unchanged at 18.5 sen, for a market capitalisation of RM337.88 million.