THE Securities Commission (SC) has strongly refuted all allegations made by Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd in a 26-page statement which accused the market regulator of acting in bad faith and not following procedures in discharging its duties.
As the statutory body mandated by Parliament to regulate the Malaysian capital market, the SC said it is charged with the responsibility of maintaining trust and confidence in the capital market.
“Its enforcement action against Serba Dinamik was undertaken in the public’s interest to promote the integrity and reliability of financial statements of public listed companies,” the SC pointed out in a media statement.
“The SC denounces any attempts to intimidate the SC or its officers and undermine its authority and credibility.”
In relation to this, the SC yesterday (April 23) lodged a police report against the global integrated oil & gas (O&G) outfit for issuing an announcement dated April 21 which contained statements that are baseless and malicious, and which may or have the effect of misleading/confusing the public and/or paint a negative image of the SC and its officers.
Serba Dinamik and four of its board members and senior management (the accused) were earlier charged for offences under securities laws in December 2021 for providing a false statement to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in relation to the company’s revenue figure of RM6.01 bil contained in its consolidated results for the quarter and year ended Dec 31, 2020.
Following Serba Dinamik’s representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Attorney-General (AG) had on April 7 agreed for all the charges to be compounded.
The SC further noted that the bulk of the allegations made by Serba Dinamik against it were issues and arguments put forward by Serba Dinamik in various High Court proceedings filed by the company which have since been dismissed by the High Court.
“In this regard, the SC wishes to state that investigations regarding this matter was conducted in accordance with its statutory powers and established processes and procedures, and categorically rejects the claims by Serba Dinamik as being without any merit,” stated the market regulator.
This includes:
- The SC denies that it failed to handover documents relating to this case, and states that documents which will be tendered by the prosecution during trial were provided to Serba Dinamik pursuant to Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
In fact, the SC had provided substantial documents which are relevant in separate batches to the defence on three separate dates, ie Jan 27, Feb 25 and April 8 this year, the receipt of which were acknowledged in writing by the lawyers representing the accused;
- The SC clarifies that the exercise of its investigation powers, including the raid conducted at Serba Dinamik’s office on May 18 last year was proper and executed in good faith in the discharge of its regulatory powers.
Pursuant to Sections 128 and 133 of the Securities Commission Malaysia Act 1993 (SCMA), the SC said it is empowered to enter any premises without a search warrant if it has reasonable grounds to believe that the delay in obtaining a search warrant may cause any documents or evidence to be interfered with or destroyed.
- The SC also states that its investigating officers, prosecuting officers and deputy public prosecutors had not at any time threatened any staff of Serba Dinamik, and that statements recorded from these witnesses were conducted according to due process and the statements were made to the SC voluntarily without any inducement, threat or promise.
“The SC filed the report to enable the police and other relevant authorities to investigate the matter, including for the offence of defamation under Section 499 of the Penal Code and/or other relevant laws. It also sought the police’s cooperation to conduct its investigations with urgency to help safeguard investors’ interest,” added the market regulator. – April 24, 2022
