This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 30, 2026 - April 5, 2026

Datasonic Group Bhd was founded by Datuk Hanifah Noordin after leaving accounting firm Ernst & Young. Listed on Bursa Malaysia in 2012, it has supplied identity cards to the Home Ministry since 1999 and, from 2016, passports. In January 2025, Datasonic was renamed NexG Bhd (KL:NEXG).

In Malaysia, capability alone does not guarantee government contracts; connections often matter more. Over the years, Hanifah consistently had influential figures on his board — for example, the late head of the armed forces Tan Sri Hashim Ali (brother-in-law of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) served as chairman for many years, while other retired top civil servants also sat on the board.

The problem for NexG was that since 2018, Malaysia has seen four changes in government, which meant four prime ministers and four home ministers. Each change put its contract at risk, forcing Hanifah to get “close” to the new leaderships to protect it.

In 2018, after Barisan Nasional (BN) was ousted and the Pakatan Harapan government pursued BN leaders, NexG (then Datasonic) made headlines when one of its directors and substantial shareholders, Chew Ben Ben, was named as having given money to Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi — then home minister — to secure a contract to supply passport chips.

According to its website, NexG has won contracts for visa and pass systems and secure identification since 1996. Its larger contracts include RM318.75 million for 12.5 million passport chips in December 2015; RM223.38 million for 13.42 million passports in April 2016; and RM270.71 million for 9.96 million polycarbonate data pages in April 2018.

Datasonic had previously been linked to Umno, the dominant party in the coalition that ruled Malaysia for 61 years. In 2014, the company sought to acquire a 30% stake in Fuelsubs House Sdn Bhd, which was bidding to manage fuel subsidies for the government, but the acquisition depended on Fuelsubs’ winning the contract.

To this end, Datasonic signed an agreement with HKS Primatrix Sdn Bhd and Fuelsubs’ shareholders — Datuk Habibul Rahman Kadir Shah, Datuk Razali Merican Naina Merican and Zaid Kadershah. Habibul and Razali, in particular, had connections to Umno and political circles, with Habibul Rahman being a close associate of then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The deal was ultimately aborted.

After the last government change in November 2022, NexG’s contract with the Home Ministry was once again vulnerable. Would it be extended, or handed to new parties such as IT services provider HeiTech Padu Bhd (KL:HTPADU) — a company that Datuk Seri Farhash Wafa Salvador, a former political secretary to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, bought into and sold in 2024?

Farhash also served as an independent director of Blumont Group Ltd, a Singapore Exchange-listed company from 2014 to 2016 that is now known as Solheim Archipelago Ltd. The company had been involved in the 2013 Singapore penny stock crash that wiped out nearly S$8 billion in market value that October.

Enter Victor Chin Boon Long — a well-known figure in market circles and, by his own account, a provider of corporate services. It is unclear when Chin joined NexG, but a Bursa Malaysia filing in September 2025 noted that he had stepped down as chief operating officer.

A month earlier, Hanifah and NexG achieved their goal — a RM1.73 billion contract from the Ministry of Home Affairs to supply passports to the Immigration Department from June 1, 2026, to May 31, 2032. In early October, NexG secured a separate six-year contract worth RM732.72 million from the same ministry to supply Malaysia’s national identity cards, including MyKad and MyTentera, followed by an 18-month extension from the Immigration Department for the continued supply of foreign worker cards.

Did Chin help secure the contracts? Which political operative did he use?

It should be noted that between 2024 and 2025, NexG acquired stakes totalling RM150 million in companies linked to him, including MMAG Holdings Bhd (KL:MMAG) and NexG Bina Bhd (KL:NEXGBINA), formerly Classita Holdings Bhd. These investments were eventually written off, following steep share price declines. NexG also purchased a 51% equity interest in Innov8tif Holdings Sdn Bhd from Revenue Group Bhd (KL:REVENUE) for RM40 million in cash.

After securing the six-year contracts, changes were made to the NexG board, marking the beginning of a dispute. It came to light when Hanifah issued a lengthy statement on March 10, 2026, criticising the new directors. He was particularly upset that they intended to sub-contract the RM2.6 billion deal to other parties, including competitor HeiTech Padu.

Last week, the already murky situation at NexG worsened. Chin released a series of press statements and a 40-page chronology detailing attempts by a group he dubbed the “corporate mafia”, allegedly assisted by executives from bodies such as the Anti-Money Laundering unit of the police force, to wrest control of NexG.

According to Hanifah, the aim of taking control of NexG was to transfer two critical pieces of intellectual property — its proprietary technologies for the government’s passport and MyKad contracts — to HeiTech Padu.

In his chronology of events, Chin says: “Overall, the chronology reflects a systematic use of threats, pressure and AMLA [Anti-Money Laundering] enforcement mechanisms to force [Chin] and other partners or shareholders into relinquishing control — a process inconsistent with normal commercial conditions and aligned with a corporate mafia operation.”

Chin is cautious with his words, however, saying: “For the avoidance of doubt, I do not suggest that PDRM (the Royal Malaysia Police) or any enforcement agency is complicit. Rather, there are serious concerns that certain individuals may have leveraged their positions and influence to affect actions taken by enforcement and regulatory bodies.”

He states that on Oct 18 last year, a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) member of parliament had sought RM10 million to “resolve Chin’s problem” and said he would speak to the corporate mafia to sort things out. Chin paid RM9.5 million but withheld the balance of RM500,000 because the MP failed to resolve the issue; the money never reached the corporate mafia.

Chin issued a message to the MP: “Please return the RM9.5 million before March 30, 2026, or I shall expose your identity.”

On March 26, Sungai Buloh MP Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan, who is Human Resource Minister and vice-president of PKR, strongly rejected claims that he had taken the RM9.5 million to help resolve the matter.

Articles have circulated online since 2023 portraying Chin as one of the more prominent figures in the corporate mafia, but he denies this. In a press statement on March 24, Chin said he was “a victim and scapegoat in the corporate mafia scandal, where the Royal Malaysian Police under Bukit Aman’s Anti-Money Laundering Special Task Force were simply used as a tool by the corporate mafia to hijack control of security-based technology company, NexG”.

Many baulk at Chin’s claim of being a victim, noting that he appears to have used tactics similar to those now being employed against him by the rival faction and the AMLA unit of the police force. Critics say Chin has his own share of victims, alleging that he and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have used the same methods to inflict fear and intimidate — mirroring the challenges he now faces.

According to media reports and sources familiar with the matter, Chin is at loggerheads with Farhash and seems aligned with NexG’s Hanifah. It has been suggested that Datuk Ishak Ismail, whose son Mohamed Najib Ishak controls 20.4% of NexG, is also in their camp, though this remains unsubstantiated.

It remains unclear whether Ishak is aligned with Chin and Hanifah. He was treasurer of Umno Permatang Pauh in Penang — Anwar’s stronghold in the 1990s — so Ishak and Anwar have a long-standing connection.

In the latest development, Ishak was appointed as executive chairman of NexG and Hanifah redesignated as deputy execu­tive chairman.

Meanwhile, Datuk Chong Loong Men, a former deputy public prosecutor and Securities Commission Malaysia executive, stepped down from NexG’s board roughly three months after his appointment.

Chong is believed to be aligned to Farhash.

Bestinet chief financial officer Kunal Tayal also stepped down around the same time as Chong because Hanifah, along with Ishak’s daughter Siti Nur Aishah Ishak and Velocity Capital Sdn Bhd, had already gained control of NexG. They had sought to remove seven board members believed to be aligned to Farhash and his associates (see chart on “who’s who” of the corporate mafia).

Following the resignations of the directors en bloc, the faction linked to Chin and Hanifah was being touted as having won the battle. Chin’s bank and Central Depository System (CDS) accounts remained frozen, however, which he notes in his chronology of events. According to him, the accounts had been “frozen beyond 90 days, with the freezing extended without basis, explanation or charges”.

Chin describes his relationship with Hanifah: “We are in a team together. We worked well [together and it was] all a work in progress, until the corporate mafia group raided NexG in October 2025.”

According to Chin, a corporate mafia gang aimed to gain control of NexG and related shareholdings “through pressure, coercion and by restricting shareholders from freely dealing with their shares”.

He claims the corporate mafia told him, “Your life is more important than the company and it is best that you let go now. Ask Tan Sri to resign and terminate the term sheet with Hanifah, otherwise Tan Sri will also kena [face the consequences].”

The Tan Sri referred to is Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, former NexG executive deputy chairman, who stepped down in mid-October last year, along with several other directors.

Chin says in his chronology of events that Mohd Khairul was warned by the corporate mafia to cease working with him and subjected to threats. “In particular, a call was made in Mohd Khairul’s presence to an AMLA officer, during which it was requested that Chin be arrested,” he notes in his chronology of events.

Chin alleges that he and his partners were subjected to threats, intimidation and repeated demands to “deliver shares”. 

He claims that the corporate mafia could exert authority and control over the police and other regulatory bodies.

He also claims that the share transfers of NexG were dictated by a Mr R. Chin claims Mr R was working for a person that was called “the boss”.

Chin says he had been in “repeated urgent contact” with Mr R when NexG’s board was allegedly pressured by the corporate mafia to appoint their nominee directors to NexG’s board.

Chin alleges Mr R had in October last year asked whether the 150 million NexG shares, or a 4.3% stake, held under Trendtrove Tradin Sdn Bhd could be transferred. Trendtrove has been linked to NexG executive director Datuk Ab Hamid Mohamad Hanipah.

Pandan MP Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli contends that Mr R is Sandraruben Neelamagham — better known as Ruben — for the fact that his legal firm Ahmad Deniel, Ruben & Co represented Farhash in his defamation suit against Rafizi.

In a surprising turn of events, Ishak emerged on March 4 as a substantial shareholder in NexG, controlling a 20.4% stake through the takeover of Trendtrove and another private company, Skyelimit Alliance Sdn Bhd. Subsequently, seven directors opposing Hanifah stepped down. They include Kunal Tayal, Mohd Zafil Ibrahim, Syed Farid Syed Ahmad Al-Attas, Aswath Ramakrishnan, Mohamed Fairuz Mohamed Fauzy and Badrul Hisham Abdul Aziz.

According to market sources, the resignations of the six directors and Chong signalled that the Farhash faction had backtracked. Media reports also suggested intervention by the prime minister, but Farhash has denied this and is seeking legal recourse.

Commenting on the whole debacle, a market watcher says: “You have the police, the AMLA arm at least, being used to benefit the corporate mafia. In other cases, you have MACC being roped in for the advantage of the corporate mafia. And these companies being targeted are listed companies; there is manipulation of shares and other wrongdoing, with minorities usually bearing the brunt. So, Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission have to act, curb the blatant disregard for the law, and step up.”

While it is known that SC accompanied the police in raiding Chin’s residence in Sungai Long, whether any action will follow remains to be seen. 

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