PUTRAJAYA (May 7): The Federal Court on Tuesday unanimously dismissed an application by businessman Ricky Wong Shee Kai for leave to appeal the High Court’s decision for him to attend civil court proceedings in person.
The three-member apex court bench, led by Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and including Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohamed Hashim and Datuk Rhodzhariah Bujang, in the unanimous decision also directed the trial to commence expeditiously and ordered Wong to pay RM20,000 costs following the dismissal of leave to appeal.
“The court dismissed Wong’s leave application as the question of whether the trial judge had erred in his decision is a matter that can be challenged by way of appeal at the end of the trial.
“In this regard Wong’s right to appeal is reserved — it is not that the trial judge’s decision is non-appealable, but rather it is appealable at the end of the trial and not during the course of it. It would not be appropriate for the Federal Court to interfere with the trial court’s discretion at this juncture. Thus, there is no prejudice towards Wong,” Nallini said.
Wong, who is currently at large in an undisclosed location, is one of the defendants in a civil action brought by the Securities Commission on May 5, 2020, for allegedly contravening the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007, in using devices, schemes or artifices to defraud Bright Packaging Industry Bhd (BPI) and/or engaging in acts, practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud upon BPI.
They were alleged to have siphoned approximately RM56 million from BPI via a series of corporate exercises between 2013 and 2015, comprising a rights issue, a private placement and two rounds of an employee share option scheme (ESOS).
Wong and Teh are directors of Wong SK Holdings.
In July 2022, Wong filed an application in the High Court pursuant to Order 33A of the Rules of Court 2012 (Order 33A) for the trial and hearing of any interlocutory proceedings of the civil action to be conducted via remote control technology (RCT); for him to be allowed to attend the proceedings of the civil action via RCT; and for him to be allowed to give evidence in the civil action via RCT, should he decide to testify.
But in November 2022, the High Court dismissed Wong’s application, as he had not satisfied the threshold of Order 33A in that he did not disclose his precise location.
The High Court also held that the administration of justice would be brought into disrepute if Ricky were to be allowed to attend and participate in the proceedings via RCT as he is currently a fugitive.
The businessman, who was represented by Datuk M David Morais, was appealing the court’s decision barring his presence in the civil proceedings where the SC, represented by Datuk Lim Chee Wee, Kwan Will Sen, and Mohd Hafiz Mohd Yusof, had objected to it.
During proceedings, Nallini had suggested to Morais to take the matter up on appeal at the end of the proceedings rather than taking it up now, which was agreed to by Lim.
The SC in its investigation allegedly also found that the monies from each exercise were transferred from BPI via layers of these nominee companies, which ultimately ended up in either Wong's HSBC account or Alliance Bank account or Wong SK Holdings' AmBank account.
Besides this civil action, the SC had also commenced forfeiture proceedings against Wong, to forfeit a property and shares in BPI where it is said to be more than RM20 million.