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

Victor Chin Boon Long

Investors who have been in the market long enough would probably remember businessman Victor Chin Boon Long as the controlling shareholder of Ingenuity Solutions Bhd, now known as MMAG Holdings Bhd (KL:MMAG).

Chin, former chief operating officer of NexG Bhd (KL:NEXG), said his task at the company was to secure long-term contracts from Putrajaya to supply passport booklets and identity cards, as well as to diversify the company’s earnings base.

Chin delivered the two contracts, collectively valued at RM2.5 billion, late last year.

Prior to that, NexG had acquired a 7.58% stake in MMAG from Chin’s wife, Chan Swee Ying. It had also acquired a 32.61% stake in NexG Bina Bhd (KL:NEXGBINA) — formerly Caely Holdings Bhd before it changed its name to Classita Holdings Bhd — from Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd (KL:HONGSENG). Notably, Chan had sold Classita shares to Hong Seng in 2023. Chin served as an executive director of MMAG from Jan 4, 2024, to Nov 3, 2025.

The share purchases were part of NexG’s growth strategy. However, the plunge in NexG Bina and MMAG share prices resulted in an investment loss of RM145.6 million for NexG in the third financial quarter ended Dec 31, 2025.

Chin said he worked well with NexG’s then executive chairman Datuk Hanifah Noordin on its growth plan “until the corporate mafia group raided NexG in October 2025”. (Last Friday [March 27], Hanifah was redesignated as deputy executive chairman and group CEO of NexG.)

Chin said he had been victimised and cornered by “corporate mafia”, who allegedly used various means, including enforcement and regulatory agencies. He claimed the corporate mafia exists, but he denied being one of them.

According to Chin, he paid RM9.5 million in cash to a member of parliament from Parti Keadilan Rakyat in October 2025 to help resolve his legal troubles by speaking to the alleged corporate mafia. Last Tuesday (March 24), Chin demanded the return of the money, claiming the MP had failed to resolve the issue, and threatened to reveal the MP’s identity if the sum was not returned.

Last Wednesday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was quoted by the media as saying that Chin is being investigated by several enforcement agencies — the Royal Malaysia Police under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act, as well as the Securities Commission Malaysia.

So far, Chin has portrayed himself as attempting to expose wrongdoings.

Notably, when Hanifah’s executive power was reinstated after the previous board resigned en masse, he held a special board meeting with executive directors Datuk Ab Hamid Mohamad Hanipah and Hajah Erna Ismail, who is also chief financial officer, to discuss matters relating to NexG’s investments in quoted shares. At the meeting, the three concluded that “the matter was closed”. 

Meanwhile, the board also reaffirmed that the investments were made in compliance with applicable laws and listing requirements. The substantial fair-value losses should not be interpreted as “a reflection of any impropriety or lack of strategic rationale behind investment decisions made by the company”, says NexG.

Sandraruben Neelamagham

A lawyer by profession, Sandraruben, 39, was an adviser to NexG and is currently executive director of HeiTech Padu Bhd (KL:HTPADU).

NexG’s founder and major shareholder Hanifah contended that Sandraruben — better known as Ruben — and Datuk Chong Loong Men were planning to outsource NexG’s core technological deliverables and crucial intellectual property tied to its contract with the government to HeiTech Padu.

In his statement on March 10, Hanifah stated that Ruben reported to one “Mr A”, whom he alleges hatched the entire plan to outsource NexG’s technological competencies, leaving the company in an inferior position.

According to Hanifah, “Mr A” is known to be linked to Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a company that handles the processing of foreign workers, particularly those from Bangladesh.

Based on Chin’s chronology of events and disclosures by Pandan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, Ruben has been identified as “Mr R”, the middle man who attempted to transfer 421.7 million NexG shares to his “boss”.

The identity of Ruben’s “boss” has not been confirmed, but Rafizi has linked him to Datuk Seri Farhash Wafa Salvador, a former political secretary of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, given that Ruben’s legal firm represented Farhash in his defamation suit against Rafizi.

HeiTech Padu Bhd

The Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Muhammad, via his private vehicle Rosetta Partners Sdn Bhd, is the largest shareholder of HeiTech Padu with a 23.6% stake. Zetrix AI Bhd (KL:ZETRIX) holds 16.9% interest as a substantial shareholder.

The holding company of Rosetta Partners is Mfivesouthsea Sdn Bhd. The only director in both private companies is Ruben.

In March 2024, Farhash was a substantial shareholder in HeiTech Padu. His interest came about through the ownership of a stake in Mfivesouthsea. At the time, Farhash had said his investment in HeiTech Padu was part of an investment with the Sultan.

He disposed of the shares a month later, however, amid public scrutiny over his shareholding in a company that was bidding for government jobs.

In October 2024, HeiTech Padu was awarded an RM892 million contract to build and commission the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe), which is supposed to replace an existing system managed by Bestinet. The contract value was raised to RM1.05 billion a year later.

The increase came even though the Public Accounts Committee raised a red flag that NIISe is due to come into effect in 2028 and would overlap with Bestinet’s system, which expires in 2031.

Mr A

In his statement on March 10, Hanifah disclosed that a person by the name of “Mr A” was behind the plan to outsource NexG’s technological works to HeiTech Padu.

Hanifah claimed Ruben was taking instructions from “Mr A” and that one of the directors in NexG also worked for “Mr A”.

Hanifah alleged that “Mr A” was publicly linked to Bestinet and that he had voice recordings of conversations involving Ruben, Chong, “Mr A” and a “Mr X” that could prove they were planning to outsource the key components in NexG’s government contract to HeiTech Padu.

Bestinet is controlled by Datuk Seri Aminul Islam Abdul Nor, who is originally from Bangladesh but is now a Malaysian citizen. The company had been in the spotlight for its Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS), which will be used by the government until 2031.

Bestinet could receive up to RM3.2 billion from Putrajaya, including backdated arrears for 2014 to 2018, when the government used the FWCMS but did not pay the company.

Aminul has faced many challenges in the last few years, including a request by the Bangladeshi authorities for his extradition, which has not materialised. In 2024, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission cleared Aminul and Bestinet of any wrongdoing.

Datuk Ishak Ismail

Ishak, a seasoned player in corporate Malaysia, recently emerged as the single-largest shareholder in NexG, with a stake of more than 20%.

According to Chin, Ishak first emerged in NexG after acquiring shares from Kuantum Juang Sdn Bhd last October. At the time, Chin said, he and Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abdul Rahman were being pressured to surrender their shares to a person called the “boss”.

Early this month, Ishak acquired additional shares in NexG from Mohd Khairul and another private company, to emerge as a substantial shareholder. The move followed Chin’s claim that the pressure on him and his associates persisted despite arrangements to surrender their shares to the group seeking control of NexG. With the freezing of their accounts showing no sign of easing, the group facilitated Ishak’s entry into the company.

This is not the first corporate foray by Ishak, 75, who has been connected to many other companies in the past. He has been closely associated with Anwar since the early 1990s and is known particularly for his corporate battles at KFC Holdings Bhd.

Datuk Hanifah Noordin

The founder and substantial shareholder of NexG is an accountant by profession and has long cultivated close ties with the government, given the company’s reliance on state contracts. Hanifah was the first to disclose NexG’s internal struggle, exposing a plot by new directors to push him out and transfer the company’s critical intellectual property and technological capabilities to HeiTech Padu — following NexG’s win of RM2.4 billion in contracts to supply national security documents, including passports, MyKad and foreign worker identification cards.

Hanifah’s statement on March 10 came about five days after he was suspended as executive chairman of NexG on March 5.

He was suspended after the old board launched an inquiry into certain NexG share acquisitions, a process that ran from October 2024 to September 2025.

During Hanifah’s tenure as executive chairman, NexG spent more than RM300 million, much of which had to be provisioned a year later. Many of the acquisitions were from companies and associates linked to Chin.

Mr X

According to Hanifah, “Mr X” is someone who has strong political influence and is in a position to ensure that the company lands infrastructure jobs, particularly for the Mass Rapid Transit 3 project.

Hanifah claimed that NexG acquired NexG Bina — formerly Caely Holdings Bhd, before it was renamed Classita Holdings Bhd — to bid for infrastructure jobs.

A few years ago, Chin was linked to Caely, which went through a boardroom tussle, during which MACC froze some of its bank accounts.

Parties allegedly linked to Chin were said to have taken the opportunity to force out the founding shareholders of Caely.

There is speculation that “Mr X” works closely with Ruben and Chong, and is well connected to Putrajaya and can influence the awarding of contracts.

Datuk Chong Loong Men 

Chong, a lawyer by profession, is one of two individuals whom Hanifah alleged were behind a plan to outsource NexG’s technologies to HeiTech Padu, the other being the company’s corporate adviser, Ruben.

Chong was appointed as executive director of NexG in mid-November 2025. He stepped down from the board less than four months later on March 8, shortly after the boardroom tussle erupted. He was the first of the seven directors targeted by Hanifah, Siti Nur Aishah Ishak (Ishak’s daughter), and Velocity Capital Sdn Bhd to resign.

Chong is a former deputy public prosecutor and had worked at the Securities Commission. Active in the corporate scene in recent years, he was executive director of Revenue Group Bhd, which sold a 51% stake in Innov8tif Holdings Sdn Bhd for RM40 million. He was on the board of Revenue between Jan 17, 2023, and end-2025.  

Chong also sits on the board of Sarawak Consolidated Industries Bhd, Parlo Bhd and NexG, as well as Erdasan Group Bhd (KL:ERDASAN), an industrial automation firm formerly known as AT Systematization Bhd. 

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