KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 18): Datuk Allan Goh Hwan Hua and companies allegedly linked to him have been denied a stay from disclosing their bank accounts’ statements to 15 investors who are suing the MyAirline co-founder and the companies.
Judicial Commissioner Leong Wai Hong ruled on Tuesday (Sept 17) that there were no special circumstances raised by Goh, i-Serve Online Mall Sdn Bhd (ISOM), and QA Smart Partnership PLT (QAS) that warranted a stay from disclosing the banking documents.
According to the investors' lawyer, Rajesh Nagarajan, the documents are to be disclosed by the defendants by Sept 26.
Earlier on Aug 12, the court had granted the plaintiffs' discovery application for the said documents. Goh, along with the two companies, are appealing this decision and applied for a stay of execution over the High Court's decision.
Besides Goh and the companies, the investors are also suing two other companies — Bright Moon Venture PLT (BMV) and Trillion Cove Holdings Bhd (TCH).
Goh is a shareholder of ISOM, and director and shareholder of TCH.
The investors are suing Goh and the companies for alleged failure to pay monthly redemption value sums and financing returns from the investors’ outlay of about RM8 million.
They claim that at all material times previously, the companies were prompt and consistent in their monthly payments.
However, the companies had failed to make the agreed upon monthly payments from November 2021 to June 2022, despite having been sent letters of demand by the plaintiffs' solicitors.
They noted that payments to them stopped in November 2021, around the time that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had raided ISOM, TCH, and other companies, and subsequently froze their bank accounts.
The defendants had applied to strike out the suit on the grounds that it was an abuse of the court process. To support their application, some defendants contended that the plaintiffs were "statutorily prohibited" from filing the legal action as the sum demanded was part of the monies seized by the central bank under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA) in late 2021.
However, the application was dismissed last December as the court ruled that there were issues that needed to be ventilated in the trial, which included if the defendants had committed fraud, as alleged by the plaintiffs. The matter is set to go for trial in October and December this year.
In September last year, BNM said it had imposed a RM50 million compound against the i-Serve Group for accepting deposits without a licence.
The central bank said it imposed the compound on seven entities under the i-Serve Group as per Section 137(1) of the Financial Services Act (FSA) and for money laundering under Section 4(1) of AMLA.
BNM said the compound was imposed on Oct 19 last year with the written consent of the public prosecutor under a joint enforcement action that followed its investigation which found that the offences were conducted between June 2018 and September 2021.
The seven entities are ISOM (RM12.5 million), i-Serve Technology and Vacations Sdn Bhd (RM12.5 million), QAS, QA Elite Partnership PLT, QA Premium Partnership PLT, MM2217 PLT, and Valuewise PLT (RM5 million each).
BNM added that the entities paid the compound on Nov 16.