Company director gets leave to cite public prosecutor for contempt

 

In 2020, the Ipoh High Court ordered the public prosecutor to unfreeze Tan Hoo Eng’s accounts with CIMB Bank Berhad after she was discharged from CBT and money laundering charges brought against her.

PETALING JAYA: 

The High Court in Ipoh has granted a company director leave to cite the public prosecutor for contempt for failing to comply with a 2020 court order to unfreeze her bank accounts.

Lawyer Gurbachan Singh said Justice Abdul Wahab Mohamed allowed the application last week during proceedings conducted online.

We will now serve the papers on the respondent (public prosecutor) for the substantive hearing,

 he told FMT.

The police had, on the instructions of the public prosecutor, frozen the bank accounts maintained by Tan Hoo Eng at CIMB Bank Bhd in 2014.

Tan, 66, had been charged in the Ipoh sessions court in 2015 with 30 counts of criminal breach of trust and 54 counts of money laundering involving more than RM25 million from her company, Blue Star Moulding Sdn Bhd.

However, the court granted her a discharge not amounting to an acquittal following an application by the prosecution.

She then applied to the court under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (Amla) for the freeze on her accounts to be lifted.

Justice Hashim Hamzah allowed the application on July 23, 2020.

In her affidavit in support of her application for leave to bring contempt proceedings, Tan said the public prosecutor’s action was tantamount to showing disrespect for a court ruling, violating Article 126 of the Federal Constitution, Section 13 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, Rule 52 of the Rules of Court 2012 and Section 44 (1) of Amla. - FMT