NEWS reports have surfaced that Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd group managing director/CEO Datuk Dr Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah and three other top company executives can expect offers to compound the various offences they have been charged under after the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) accepted representations on the matter.
Malay Mail said it was made to understand that the AGC reached the decision despite objections from the Securities Commission (SC) and Bursa Malaysia.
“Four separate Sessions Courts were informed of the conditional acceptance of the representations made by the AGC concerning Abdul Karim, executive director Datuk Syed Nazim Syed Faisal, group chief financial officer Azhan Azmi and vice-president of accounts and finance Muhammad Hafiz Othman,” the news portal pointed out.
“A letter of representation is a letter to the AGC that sets out reasons why they should either not press charges, drop the charges against the accused or seek a particular sentence from the court.”
The conditions in their respective letters of representation were not disclosed in today’s court proceedings, but the Malay Mail understood that all the accused agreed to be compounded in exchange for charges against them to be dropped.
The amount of the compound will also be determined by the SC. However, sources told Malay Mail that both SC and Bursa had argued against the compound offer, pointing out that it would negatively impact the capital markets.
However, representatives from the AGC countered that the powers with regard to prosecution are contained in Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution whereby the Attorney General at his discretion may institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence.
“Following today’s decision, it is also understood that the SC will be seeking to obtain an order to bar the four accused from being a director, and be involved in the management, whether directly or indirectly, of any public company for an undisclosed term,” noted the Malay Mail.
“As for Bursa, the regulatory body had previously filed an originating summons against Serba Dinamik for breach of listing requirements and failure to disclose the fact finding update (FFU) prepared by EY Consulting Sdn Bhd in its special independent review.”
According to theedgemarkets.com, the respective Sessions Courts have fixed May 13 for mention to update on whether each respective accused complied with the conditions set out by the AGC.
The global integrated oil & gas (O&G) outfit was last transacted at 35 sen at the close of the mid-day trading on Oct 22 last year prior to the trading suspension of its shares/warrants, hence giving the company a market capitalisation of RM1.3 bil. – April 11, 2022
