MACC raids glove maker WRP, lawyer says company will cooperate

A team from the MACC today raided glove maker WRP Asia Pacific's premise in Sepang as part of misappropriation of funds probe allegedly involving the company's former senior executive.

This was confirmed by law firm Thomas Philip which is acting on behalf of the new WRP's board of directors (BOD) that had taken over its management since January this year.

"While a raid by MACC is not something that any company wants, for us at WRP it means another step forward to holding the previous management accountable for their actions," said WRP's special counsel Mathew Thomas Philip in a statement today.

“The new BOD is more than willing to cooperate and be of any assistance in these ongoing investigations," he added.

Philip also revealed that as part of the new management's company turnaround efforts, it had effective from June 5 appointed former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan (below) as regularity compliance and security advisor, specifically on adherence to Malaysia's regulatory requirements.

"The BOD has mandated Musa and his experienced team of professionals to join the turnaround team to assess the company, its affiliates and subsidiaries on all regulatory and security-related matters," said Philip.

In October 2018, the US Customs and Borders banned WRP from exporting its products to the United States over suspicion of forced labour. 

A temporary suspension of its operations from Dec 30 last year had uncovered various issues believed to be linked to alleged mismanagement, including the hiring of over 1,000 irregular migrant workers.  

The company had at the time proceeded to appoint interim liquidators and an emergency shareholders injection of RM3.25 million was channelled to enable the beleaguered company to pay its workers. 

Then human resources minister M Kulasegaran said WRP's operations were being closely monitored and in late February the company announced that it would be restarting operations under the management of the new board. 

Increasing demand for personal protective equipment including rubber gloves amid the Covid-19 pandemic had eventually led the US to lift its import sanction on WRP Asia in March.  - Mkini