“Fraud buster” Foo Lee Mei’s departure a great loss to SC
OF the three Securities Commission (SC) senior executives who have tendered their resignation recently – excluding executive chairman Datuk Syed Zaid Albar – the loss of managing director Foo Lee Mei is likely to be “felt most” given her stint spanning 28 years with the market regulator.
With due respect, Foo’s length of service outlasted that of her three departing colleagues, including Syed Zaid.
Recall that Syed Zaid was appointed the head honcho of the market regulator on Nov 1, 2018 while general counsel Chee Fei Meng joined the SC in April 2019 (she was formerly the CIMB group legal head).
Meanwhile, executive director (digital strategy & innovation) Chin Wei Min joined the commission as an executive director in April 2016.
Foo had on April 6 opted to terminate her contract with the SC earlier (her last day is on May 20), prompting the SC to disassociate her resignation with recent media speculation linked to the official announcement of Syed Zaid’s resignation on April 28.
Forensic instinct
Foo Lee MeiFoo who obtained her LLB (first Class Hons) from University Malaya in 1987 served as deputy public prosecutor (DPP) with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) for six years before joining the SC in 1994. She was appointed general counsel of the SC in 2009.
Worth mentioning is that she was co-chair of the APG’s (Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering) Typologies Working Group from 2008-2009 and has driven many of APG’s initiatives in the collection and analysis of case studies on money laundering in the securities sector in the region.
In essence, she is a trained APG assessor and is one of APG’s resource person in the conduct of assessment on member countries’ compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40+9 Recommendations.
In 2004, she was re-gazetted as a DPP by the Attorney-General (AG) and continued to lead SC appeals at the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
From 2008-2010, she co-chaired the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) Typologies Working Group.
Nailing Serba
As pointed out by theedgemarkets.com, Foo’s role was instrumental in air cargo service provider Transmile Group Bhd’s accounting fraud case involving inflating revenue with fake invoices.
The extensive accounting scandal was red-flagged by the company’s then-external auditor in 2007, and the board then conducted a forensic audit of Transmile’s accounts to reveal the truth.
This led to the conviction of Transmile’s former CEO and founder Gan Boon Aun who was found guilty of furnishing misleading statements with the intent to deceive, relating to the company’s revenue for the financial years ended Dec 31, 2005 and 2006.
After 15 years, the Sessions Court found Gan guilty of furnishing misleading financial statements to Bursa Malaysia. He was fined RM2.5 mil (in default 18 months’ imprisonment) and sentenced to a day in jail last year.
The SC later appealed to increase the jail sentence from one day to 24 months. However, the hearing did not take place as Gan was on the run.
Fast forward to the present, Foo was confronted with a somehow parallel situation in the Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd’s case whereby the latter’s external auditor, KPMG PLT, red-flagged audit issues in the global integrated oil & gas (O&G) outfit.
What appeared to be a solid case in which Serba Dinamik and four of its senior executives were charged on Dec 28, 2021 with submission of a false statement in relation to the company’s record high revenue of RM6.014 bil for the 12-month period ended Dec 31, 2020, became a “non-event” when the AGC decided to drop the charges following a letter of representation by the accused.
The SC was eventually left with the option of imposing maximum compound fines totalling a mere RM16 mil – with RM3 mil each against the company and four individuals (including its group managing director/CEO Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah) with an additional RM1 mil against vice-president of accounts and finance Muhammad Hafiz Othman.
For the uninitiated, news of the AGC’s acceptance of Serba Dinamik’s letter of representation only came about on April 11 – five days after Foo has tendered her resignation. – May 4, 2022
SC is in process of being "Bossku"-fied, like much of the rest of Malaysia's institutions.
ReplyDeleteCorruption and abuse of power in Corporate circles is becoming Normalised. In fact they can be regarded as Beneficial if they serve and benefit other objectives such as National goals and profitability .
Just as Bossku is now treated as a hero because people think he managed the economy well during his tenure.
We can only speculate on what happened. But, unfortunately, we have to conclude invisible hands were at play.
ReplyDeleteAgain, we can only surmise that the resignations were due to issues of integrity.
If the executives all resigned out of disgust and they do not want to be tainted by the mud, I salute them for standing fast to their principles.