THE Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) yesterday (March 3) by upholding the decision of the High Court in 2019 that Stone Master Corp Bhd’s former deputy managing director had breached securities laws.
For the record, the marble and granite product maker was de-listed on May 23, 2019.
Stone Master was loss-making since 2006, some four years after it was listed on the then Second Board of KLSE at an issue price of RM1 apiece. The thinly-traded counter was last done at 10.5 sen on March 21, 2019 which valued the company at RM9.44 mil.
Justices Datuk Lee Swee Seng, Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Gunalan Muniandy stated that the Court of Appeal did not find any error in the findings of the High Court judge.
In 2019, the High Court found that Chan had caused wrongful loss to Stone Master by breaching Section 317A of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
Section 317A was introduced into the CMSA to deal with the conducts of directors and officers of public listed companies (PLCs) with the intention of causing wrongful loss to the companies irrespective of whether the conducts cause actual wrongful loss.
Chan was ordered to pay RM11.54 mil and a civil penalty of RM1 mil to the SC.
During the trial, it was established that Stone Master had paid several local representatives of several foreign companies non-refundable deposits amounting to RM11.59 mil. Evidence showed that RM11.54 mil of the deposits were subsequently transferred into Chan’s personal bank accounts.
On Sept 28, 2016, the SC had obtained an interim injunction to restrain Chan from dealing with monies in her personal bank accounts up to the value of RM11.54 mil. – March 4, 2022
