This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 16, 2026 - March 22, 2026

THE proxy fight to gain control of NexG Bhd (KL:NEXG) has revealed issues, such as conflict of interest and governance, in the company that holds the exclusive contracts to supply the Malaysian government’s passport booklets, national identity cards, MyTentera cards and foreign worker identification cards.

The feud, which ended within two weeks, pitted NexG’s executive chairman Datuk Hanifah Noordin, who was trying to regain control of the company he founded, and businessman Datuk Ishak Ismail against Datuk Chong Loong Men, a former deputy public prosecutor and Securities Commission officer, and parties linked to him. 

Hanifah and Siti Nur Aishah Ishak (Ishak’s daughter), together with Velocity Capital Partner Bhd (KL:VELOCITY), sought an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove seven directors and appoint eight new ones, including Ishak and his son, Mohamad Najib Ishak, who is the group managing director of Raya Airways.

The seven board members resigned en masse shortly after that, ending the boardroom tussle.

Among the seven directors who relinquished their board seats is Kunal Tayal, an Indian national. The non-independent non-executive director of NexG is also Bestinet’s chief financial officer (CFO).

In short, Kunal holds posts in two companies — one that supplies foreign worker identification cards while the other processes the documentation for foreign worker procurements. Notably, Bestinet is not a subsidiary or associate company of NexG, and vice versa.

“This raises a number of red flags over Kunal’s appointment, as [there] seems to be a conflict [of interest],” a source familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity says.

The shareholder feud, however, cut short Kunal’s stint at NexG to roughly four months, from Nov 18, 2025, to March 11, 2026.

To recap, NexG on Oct 15 last year announced that a RM140 million contract from the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) for the supply of foreign worker cards (i-Kad) to the Immigration Department for a three-year period from Nov 1, 2022 to Oct 31, 2025, had been extended for 18 months, from November 2025 to end-April 2027, with no contract value attached.

The i-Kad contract is small, compared with the two contracts to supply passport booklets and identity cards, which are collectively valued at RM2.5 billion. Nonetheless, it is still an important contract given the large number of migrant workers in the country.

Bestinet is the operator of the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS), which has 15 modules covering all aspects of the processing of documents of foreign workers from all countries. However, the system has been deployed mainly for the documentation of Bangladeshi workers.

Bestinet is controlled by Aminul, a Bangladeshi granted with permanent resident status in Malaysia. He is said to have significant ties in his home country and is also well connected in Malaysia.

FWCMS, developed by Bestinet, came under scrutiny in 2024 after the Public Accounts Committee found that the system had been operating the foreign worker recruitment platform for six years without a finalised contract, despite a letter of acceptance being issued in 2018.

The current government finalised the contract on Sept 3, 2024, and it took effect retroactively from June 1, 2024, to Jan 31, 2031. The revised agreement resulted in more than double the government payments to Bestinet, with the fee per foreign worker permit rising to RM215 from RM100.

Two months later, in November 2024, the Bangladesh government made a request to extradite Aminul and his associate, Ruhul Amin, for their links to money laundering activities.

Nearly a year after the request, in October 2025, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was quoted by the media as saying that the matter was being managed on a government-to-government (G2G) basis as well as a police-to-police (P2P) basis, predicated on bilateral cooperation.

Last month, on Feb 10, Saifuddin said in a written parliamentary reply that the government had paid Bestinet over RM381 million for the issue of temporary foreign worker permits through the FWCMS since it became fully operational in February last year. According to him, a total of 2.35 million passes had been issued as at Dec 31, 2025.

Besides NexG, Kunal has 15.26% or 373.18 million shares in Green Packet Bhd (KL:GPACKET), a digital solutions provider in which he is a non-independent non-executive director.

Kunal bought his stake in Green Packet, which he holds via Authentic Design Resources Sdn Bhd, from Silver Peak Sdn Bhd — a vehicle of Datuk Seri Andy Lim Kok Han, who also owns shares in GIIB Bhd (KL:GIIB).

A Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) check on Authentic Design indicates that while Kunal wholly-owns the company, his boss Aminul is a director along with him. Both Authentic Design and Bestinet have the same registered address at Dataran Glomac in Kelana Jaya.

In addition, Kunal is a non-independent non-executive director of G3 Global Bhd (KL:G3), which is also involved in the provision of information technology solutions but mainly caters to the healthcare sector. Aminul holds a 22.27% stake, or 924.55 million shares, directly and via his son Muhammad Qhailiz Norman Aminul Islam, in the company.

Aminul surfaced as a substantial shareholder of G3 in November 2021 while Muhammad Qhailiz Norman had become a substantial shareholder at end-August 2019. In between, market player Victor Chin Boon Long ceased to be a substantial shareholder in G3 in May 2020.

Aminul is an executive director of G3 and is a director of Green Packet’s subsidiary company, according to its annual report for FY2025.

Notably, Chin, the former shareholder of G3, had a presence in NexG too. 

He stepped down as chief operating officer in September 2025. Meanwhile, his wife Chan Swee Ying sold a 7.58% stake in MMAG Holdings Bhd (KL:MMAG) to NexG and a 6.5% stake to Velocity Capital Partner — a company in which Tan Sri Azam Baki, chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), acknowledged he owned shares, which he sold.

Datuk Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak was also a substantial shareholder of MMAG. He held 19.9% or 462 million shares until Jan 9 this year. He sold the block to Future Star Sdn Bhd, which is controlled by 25-year-old Cheah Min Lly. The shares remain pledged to Velocity Capital Sdn Bhd, a money lending outfit controlled by Velocity Capital Partner, despite changing hands.

Neither Aminul nor Kunal is a shareholder of NexG. Kunal joined the board together with Chong and Aswath Ramakrishnan in mid-November last year. Prior to that, four individuals — Syed Farid Syed Ahmad Al-Attas, Mohamed Fairuz Mohamed Fauzy, Badrul Hisham Abdul Aziz and Mohd Zafil Ibrahim — were appointed to NexG’s board.

The appointments of the seven directors came after the exodus of four board members — executive deputy chairman Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, executive director Datuk Puvanesan Subenthiran, and independent directors Datuk Seri Mohd Sopiyan Mohd Rashdi and Datuk Zainal Abidin Abu Hassan, all of whom stepped down, citing personal reasons.

The movements happened after NexG secured the major public contracts.

Last week, Hanifah in a statement claimed that several former directors, independent directors and key management officers were “forced to leave their positions under circumstances that raised serious concerns with the company”.

“I was made aware that representations and threats had allegedly been made to certain individuals that they could face investigations by the authorities, including potential PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police) and AMLA (anti-money laundering)-related actions, should they refuse to step down from their positions,” said Hanifah.

According to Hanifah, he was placed under pressure to facilitate the appointment of several new directors to fill the vacancies. He pointed out that it was not clear “whose interests these individuals ultimately represented, as there were no disclosures indicating any shareholding interest or identifiable alignment with existing shareholders”.

This explains the reason for Hanifah and parties acting in concert with him to requisition an EGM to remove the board then. Meanwhile, the then board members suspended his executive powers, citing the reason as ensuring “an ongoing review relating to the company’s investments in quoted shares can proceed in a transparent, independent and orderly manner”.

The departure of Chong, Kunal and the others indicate that the faction of shareholders linked to Ishak, who has 20.4% equity interest or 711.7 million shares, and Hanifah, who has a 9.58% stake, has prevailed.

On March 11, Hanifah’s executive powers and functions, which were suspended on March 5, were reinstated.

Hanifah alleged that there was a plan to subcontract NexG’s technologies to a competing public-listed firm — HeiTech Padu Bhd (KL:HTPADU). Farhash is a former shareholder of HeiTech Padu and sold his stake in April 2024.

The boardroom tussle at NexG has concluded as far as the substantial shareholders are concerned. 

However, whatever that has unfolded before the public seems to suggest there is more than meets the eye. Will this warrant the attention of Putrajaya?

Corporate governance is vital, more so for companies that deal with authorised identification. There are no two ways about it.

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