KUALA LUMPUR (July 10): The High Court on Wednesday has allowed an application by Singapore-based Genisys Integrated Engineers Pte Ltd and Malaysia-based UEM Bhd to remove two liquidators of their former subsidiary company UEM Genisys Sdn Bhd, namely Onn Kien Hoe and Mok Yuen Lok.
Judge Ahmad Murad Abdul Aziz also dismissed Onn and Mok’s oral application for a stay of the decision, pending their prospective appeal against this decision to the Court of Appeal.
Ahmad Murad also approved the appointment of Tan Peng Sam as the new liquidator replacing the two.
The judge further ordered Onn and Mok to pay RM20,000 in costs.
The court further allowed leave (permission) for the court to assess and vary the remuneration for payment to Onn and Mok’s liquidator fees.
The decision was made after Ahmad Murad heard submissions last month over Genisys Integrated and UEM’s application to remove the two liquidators as the duo had negligently lost RM15.681 million that they held on behalf of the company between 2015 and 2023.
Onn and Mok were said to have only discovered the losses last September and subsequently lodged a police report the next month.
The two liquidators have also come up with the sum they lost only in January this year, but the two companies, which are the contributories, felt that there could have been more, as the sum did not include interest, which the companies expect to amount to more than RM2 million.
Last September, UEM and Genisys Integrated filed a notice of motion to seek Onn and Mok’s removal as liquidators following the loss of the UEM Genisys funds.
In their application, the companies alleged that the liquidators had failed in their statutory duty to display the amount, skill, and diligence in conducting the affairs of UEM Genisys, and had failed to take expeditious steps for the disposal of the liquidation process of the company for the benefit of the contributories after nearly 18 years.
The sum of RM15.681 million was lost following 48 transactions done over the eight-year period to withdraw the sum from fixed deposits, including a sum of RM345,000 that was paid to a company for which Onn and Mok had also acted as liquidators.
In Wednesday's proceedings, Genisys Integrated and UEM were represented by Gideon Tan, Ashvinpal Kaur, and Muhammad Alif Ashraf, while Onn and Mok were represented by John Wong and YH Yeo.