KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): The High Court has imposed a RM450,000 fine on Learnabee International Sdn Bhd and its two directors, Evanna Low Fei Ting and Johari Low Abdullah, after finding them guilty of contempt of court for not abiding by an injunction obtained against them by private trust company UBB Amanah Bhd.
UBB Amanah has applied for committal proceedings against the three for breaching the court’s order dated April 17, by continuing to make untruthful publications on Learnabee’s Facebook (FB) page to equate cash trust to a Ponzi scheme and warning the public that the cash trust was going to collapse.
UBB Amanah had made the ex-parte contempt application on May 4, alleging that Learnabee’s five FB postings between April 23 and May 4 referred to the trust company
Judicial Commissioner Leong Wai Hong, in his judgement on Dec 4, ruled that Learnabee, Low and Johari were guilty of contempt and fined them RM100,000, RM200,000, and RM150,000 respectively.
In addition, Johari was ordered to pay costs of RM175,000, while Low and Learnabee were asked to pay total costs of RM175,000.
Johari’s solicitors Vince Chong Partnership, and Low and Learnabee’s solicitors Manjit Singh Sachdev, Mohamad Radzi and Partners have informed the court that the payments had been made.
Datuk Manpal Singh, a lawyer representing Low and Learnabee, informed the court that his clients have paid the fine and removed the FB postings.
It is unclear whether a custodial sentence was also imposed on Low and Johari. The Edge was unable to sight the court's full order via file searches.
The Edge has contacted UBB Amanah’s solicitors Rozana Segaran & Co on the matter but has yet to receive a response.
The solicitors for Johari, Low and Learnabee said they reserve the right to appeal against the committal.
UBB Amanah’s suit against trio and Rockwills
The original lawsuit filed by UBB Amanah alleged that Learnabee, Low and Johari, along with Rockwills Corp Sdn Bhd, had maliciously portrayed and equated cash trust companies, and particularly UBB Amanah, as being Ponzi schemes through a 15-session webinar series.
The private trust firm also alleged in the suit that Learnabee insinuated that the cash trust is involved in illegal and fraudulent business operations, with the intent of cheating its clients and customers of their money.
The trust company claimed that the defendants’ actions in interfering with its business resulted in UBB Amanah suffering losses in the sum of RM8.615 million from July 2021 to June 28, 2022.
It alleged that Low, who is also a content producer for Learnabee, had in a webinar series demonstrated a forensic investigation on a particular trust company described as “a trustee company”, which UBB Amanah noted bore striking similarities to itself.
UBB Amanah also alleged that through webinars, Learnabee and Low had repeatedly instigated fear and concern among the webinar participants that their money held under the trust company was being mismanaged and was at risk.
“[Learnabee and Low] also provided participants of the webinars with samples of termination letters and inquiries letters, which can be adopted by them for the purpose of terminating their trust deeds or [to] raise queries with [UBB Amanah],” it added, claiming that the defendants had actively persuaded the webinars’ participants to terminate their trust deeds with UBB Amanah.
UBB Amanah also claimed that the fear and concern among the public was further enhanced after an article titled “Several cash trusts said to be Ponzi schemes” was published by The Edge.