KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Kumpulan Jetson Bhd (KL:JETSON) is countersuing its co-founder Datuk Teh Kian Ann for RM1.27 million after rejecting his claim that the company still owes him RM891,847 from payments he made to participate in its employee share option scheme (Esos).
The legal battle formed part of the latest dispute surrounding Kumpulan Jetson's Esos, less than three weeks after an independent forensic review found irregularities in the implementation of the scheme and in certain payments made by the company.
In a Bursa Malaysia filing on Monday, Kumpulan Jetson said Teh, who had previously served the company as executive chairman, had in his suit claimed to have participated in the Esos as an employee of the company.
Teh, in his suit, alleged that he joined the Esos in June 2025 and paid a total of RM2.16 million to the company, said the company.
He claimed Kumpulan Jetson subsequently cancelled the Esos without allotting him any shares and later refunded RM1.27 million through three payments between August and September 2025. Teh went on to claim that the company therefore still owed him RM891,847.36 and is seeking repayment of that amount, together with interest, legal costs and other relief deemed appropriate by the Sessions Court.
Kumpulan Jetson, however, has rejected Teh's claim entirely. The company said Teh was not an employee at the material time and had neither participated in nor been eligible to participate in the Esos in June 2025.
"Further to the above, the company takes the position that the plaintiff is not entitled to the sum of RM1,269,789 paid by the company to the plaintiff (Teh) and such payment is invalid and made without legal consideration," the company said.
In a counterclaim, the company is seeking the return of the entire RM1.27 million to the company, together with interest of 5% per annum from the date of the counterclaim until full repayment. Kumpulan Jetson is also seeking a declaration that Teh was not eligible to participate in the Esos and that the RM1.27 million transferred to him remained funds belonging to the company.
"The frivolous suit brought by the plaintiff will be further addressed in relevant actions to be taken by the company pursuant to the findings of the forensic report in relation to the Esos matter, as announced on July 31, 2026," the company added.
On that day, an independent forensic review by BDO Governance Advisory Sdn Bhd identified irregularities in transactions and processes carried out in and around June 2025. The company said the review found certain disputed payments had been made without adequate supporting documentation, commercial justification or proper approval.
The review also found that the Esos had not been implemented in accordance with its bylaws and lacked adequate oversight by the company's Esos committee.
At the time, Kumpulan Jetson did not provide details of the disputed payments or identify the parties involved. The latest filing does not explicitly say whether the RM1.27 million paid to Teh was among the disputed payments identified by BDO. It does, however, directly link the lawsuit to the same Esos matter and say a further action will be taken based on the findings of the forensic report.
To recap, the Esos scheme formed part of a broader corporate exercise announced earlier by Kumpulan Jetson and allowed for options covering up to 15% of the company's share base.
As the shareholder dispute escalated in 2025, the company moved to issue about 60.4 million shares under the Esos with about 40.63 million shares, or 67% of the proposed issuance, allocated to an executive director. The implementation was subsequently halted amid another attempt by shareholders to remove the board.
Kumpulan Jetson underwent a major boardroom change in September 2025, when five non-executive directors — Wong Hong Yuk, Teoh Cheng Fang, Ilham Abadi Idris, Looi Mun Fei and Ranjit Singh Kartar Singh — joined the board.
Teh retired from the board on Sept 11, 2025, shortly after the change. As of Kumpulan Jetson's July 31 disclosure, he continued to hold a 4.48% direct stake and another 5.60% indirect interest in the company.
Shares of Kumpulan Jetson settled unchanged at eight sen on Monday, valuing the company at RM33.35 million. Year-to-date, the share price has dropped more than 33%.