Cops want charges in Soi Lek’s brother case

Police confirm they are wrapping up the case and are 'finalising everything' before forwarding it to the A-G.

PETALING JAYA: The police will recommend to the Attorney-General that those involved in a RM85 million criminal breach of trust probe be charged.

One of them said to be under investigation is the younger brother of MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, Chua Chong Seng .

Syed Ismail Syed Azizan, who heads the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department, told FMT that police are close to wrapping up the case and are “finalising everything” before forwarding it to the A-G

“We’re just summarising and preparing the minutes, and we’ll submit the investigations papers to the [A-G's] Chambers in a short period of time. It’s at the final stages,” he said.

Asked if the public should be expecting charges, Syed Ismail said: “Of course… we are recommending charges. That’s part of the SOP [standard operating procedure].”

However, he declined to say if there is a solid case against one or more suspects.

When asked if the police had liaised with the Securities Commission (SC) on the case, Syed Ismail said that police investigations had nothing to do with a probe the SC was reported to be carrying out.

Sources had told FMT that a special task force had interviewed Chong Seng recently and it is expected to hand over its investigation papers to the A-G’s Chambers in the next few days.

‘Questionable circumstances’

Investigators also recorded statements from officials of companies in Batu Pahat, Johor, which allgedly received payment for non-existing contracts.

“If the A-G’s Chambers orders further probe, then we might return to Batu Pahat to collect more documenteray evidence in identifying all the suspects linked to this scandal,” a source said.

On April 20, FMT reported that Chong Seng was among the three main suspects in the case.

Bukit Aman had raided the premises of Xian Leng Holdings Bhd, an ornamental fish breeder, in Batu Pahat and seized stacks of documents.

The case is classified under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust.

A week prior to that, The Edge reported that a recent special audit of Xian Leng showed that RM85.7 million of the company’s money had been remitted to four contractors “under questionable circumstances”.

The weekly said three former directors – Chong Seng, Ng Huan Tong and Ng’s wife Lim Wan Hong – had allegedly signed cash cheques for amounts totalling RM85.7 million (out of a total of RM90.7 million capital expenditure) to pay the four contractors for the construction of fish ponds.

It also said another RM5 million had allegedly been paid out to 52 other contractors.

Chong Seng had resigned in August 2008.

The Edge also reported that the cheques were made through a licensed money changing company, which is 80%-owned by Chong Seng and that he did not disclose this fact to Xian Leng.

“The issuance of cash cheques for such large sums of money is a departure from the procedures prescribed by the group’s finance manual,” Xian Leng had said after submitting the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services Sdn Bhd to Bursa Malaysia.

According to a file that Xian Leng submitted to Bursa Malaysia, the issuance of large sums of money through cash cheques was against the company’s financial manual and there was a lack of corroborative evidence that the contractors were ever paid.

The SC had then also confirmed that it was probing the alleged financial irregularities of the same case. The status of SC’s case is unknown.