This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 24, 2026 - August 30, 2026

IN recent weeks, UBB Amanah Bhd and its subsidiaries — Primus Equities & Assets Sdn Bhd and UBB Investment Bank Ltd — have come under scrutiny amid their clash with the regulators.

It was revealed in court last Wednesday that UBB Amanah’s managing director and CEO Aida Aizura Othman had wrongly released RM139.89 million cash to educational institution ELMU Higher Education Sdn Bhd.

And on Aug 14, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA) imposed a total compound of RM10 million on UBB Investment Bank for breach of anti-money laundering rules, including its failure to promptly report suspicious transactions.

A separate LFSA probe found that in 2023, the Labuan-based bank had failed to identify and verify a customer’s identity in an onboarding process, which constituted a serious breach under Section 98(2) of the Labuan Financial Services and Securities Act 2010 (LFSSA).

The central bank highlighted that this affected UBB Investment Bank’s ability to assess and detect the potential involvement of the customer in illicit overseas activities.

Prior to Bank Negara’s compound, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has initiated an investigation into the redeemable preference shares (RPS) that Primus Equities had issued to its 80% shareholder UBB Amanah.

Under two subscription agreements signed between the two parties, Primus could have received a maximum sum of RM2.7 billion between June 2021 and October 2022. In addition, UBB Amanah had injected RM170 million into Primus in 2023.

Nonetheless, Primus has gone to court to obtain an interim stay to halt the SC’s investigation for the time being.

As for the RM139.89 million disbursement, Aida was deceived by Razlan Raghazli, the former CEO of UBB Amanah’s Labuan unit UBB Investment Bank, into releasing the amount.

Razlan was charged in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court last Wednesday with deceiving Aida, misleading her to release RM139.89 million to ELMU Higher Education through an alleged misrepresentation of legal advice in September last year.

“You deceived her into believing that the payment schedule stated in a UBB Investment Bank Ltd letter titled Disbursement Advice on Islamic Property Financing Under Bai-Bithamin Ajil (BBA) dated Sept 18, 2025, which you signed, was consistent with and based on advice from the solicitors Messrs Kassim Tadin, Wai & Co.

“You did this while knowing that it actually contradicted the advice given by the said solicitors,” according to the charge sheet read before the court.

The charge sheet stated that Aida, who is also a shareholder of UBB Amanah, would not have released the funds had she not been given the information by Razlan. The 43-year-old Razlan pleaded not guilty and claimed trial to the charge.

Judging by the letter titled Disbursement Advice on Islamic Property Financing Under BBA, it appears that Elmu Education Group Sdn Bhd (Elmu Group) might have taken an Islamic financing facility from UBB Investment Bank.

It is not known what happened to the RM139.89 million received by ELMU Higher Education. Is the entity obliged to return the sum since the disbursement should not have taken place?

On the same day, the chief financial officer of Elmu Group, Noraini Aripin, was charged in the Seremban Sessions Court with criminal breach of trust involving RM6.56 million in company funds, according to Bernama.

Noraini, who owns a 10% stake in Elmu Group, was accused of misappropriating the amount, intended for ad valorem stamp duty payments to the Inland Revenue Board, redirecting the funds for other purposes. She pleaded not guilty after the charge was read out to her before judge Datin M Kunasundary Marimuthu.

The alleged offence took place between September 2025 and April this year in the office of a private university operated by Elmu Group in Nilai.

Elmu Group’s other shareholders are Hakano Holdings Sdn Bhd (30%), AB Management & Consultancy Services Sdn Bhd (20%), CR Global Sdn Bhd (15%), Venture Pro Sdn Bhd (15%) and Ramssol Group Bhd (KL:RAMSSOL) (10%).

ELMU Higher Education, which received RM139.89 million from UBB Amanah, posted a net loss of RM15.15 million in its financial year ended Dec 31, 2024 (FY2024), largely due to a sharp rise in administrative expenses to RM15.6 million from RM6.25 million a year ago, according to filing to Companies Commission of Malaysia.

Property, plant and equipment amounting to RM155.03 million were ELMU Higher Education’s main asset. Its total assets stood at RM160.96 million. It had zero borrowings as at end-2024 ; however, retained earnings deficit swelled to RM24.3 million and accruals (under trade and other current payables) totalled RM148.2 million. 

At Elmu Group,  for FY2024, the loss attributable to shareholders widened to RM13.9 million from RM6.31 million the year before. Annual revenue was higher at RM359,811 but  administrative expenses amounted to RM16.27 million in FY2024 compared with RM102,184 and RM6.3 million respectively in FY2023.

Datuk Dr Kassim Noor Mohamed, Elmu Group’s group CEO and managing director, is one of the six members of an anti-corruption advisory board for the period of July 15, 2025 to July 14, 2028.

The primary role of the advisory board is to advise the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on strategies, policies and matters related to corruption issues.  The chief commissioner of the MACC is an ex-officio member of the board.

At UBB Amanah, its chairman Datuk Azmi Alias, is a former senior officer of the MACC.

After the charges were heard in court, UBB Amanah issued a memorandum, giving the assurance that its operations and financial standing remained “strong, stable and unaffected” and clients’ interests remained protected.

“We wish to assure all parties that the collateral involved in the said charge is duly secured. More importantly, the interests of our clients remain fully safeguarded and protected,” the memorandum reads. “For the avoidance of doubt, the misconduct of the former UBB Investment Bank CEO does not in any way jeopardise UBB’s business operations.”

UBB Amanah provides custody and trustee services to the Malaysian public, mainly high-net-worth individuals.

Trust companies are registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia under the Trust Companies Act 1949 and the Trustee Act 1949. Their services often include estate planning such as wills, insurance trusts, education trusts and corporate trust structures.

UBB Amanah’s Aida had once told The Edge that its operations were also governed by legislation, including the Companies Act 2016, Wills Act 1959, Probate and Administration Act 1959, Personal Data Protection Act 2010 and the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

Some quarters point out that cash trust companies, whose clients place funds with a trustee to manage money on behalf of their beneficiaries, seem to be an unusual position in the financial ecosystem.

Unlike bank deposits, their money does not have deposit insurance protection. At the same time, the money falls outside the regulatory purview of Bank Negara and the SC.

However, the amendment to Schedule 3 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) took effect on Jan 1, granting the SC a more direct role in determining which trust companies carrying out regulated capital market activities qualify for licensing exemptions.

Primus is challenging the authority of the SC to probe on its fund raising exercise. It has filed an application for leave to commence judicial review against the regulator. Primus believes that the RPS that it issued to UBB Amanah did not require approval under Section 212 of the CMSA. It also pointed out that the injection of RM170 million did not involve shares and securities.

Furthermore, Primus contends that the amendments should not be applied to the transactions under investigation because they predated the amendments.

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