Court of Appeal upheld jail sentence on former directors of MEMS Technology

Add This To Del.icio.us Share on Facebook StumbleUpon This Add to Technorati Digg This

Kuala Lumpur, 8 November 2011

In a landmark decision for securities cases, the Court of Appeal on Friday upheld a six months jail term imposed by the High Court on two former directors of MEMS Technology Berhad (MEMS), for authorizing the furnishing of a misleading statement to Bursa Malaysia in MEMS's Condensed Consolidated Income Statement for the 12 month period ended 31 July 2007. The two former directors of MEMS, which was delisted in November 2010, were charged in the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur in 2009 for the misleading statement which related to the company's reported revenue of RM73.416 million as it contained over RM30 million of sales that did not take place. 



Ooi Boon Leong and Tan Yeow Teck had on 25 February 2010 pleaded guilty at the Sessions Court to committing the offence and were fined RM300,000 each upon which the Public Prosecutor appealed to the High Court on the grounds that the sentence was manifestly inadequate. 

In enhancing the sentence, the High Court Judge Justice Dato Hj Ghazali bin Cha, in January 2011 imposed an additional six months jail sentence to the fine of RM300,000 which had been imposed by the Sessions Court. The High Court judge had cited public interest as a reason for the enhanced sentence, pointing out that the offence affected the integrity of the capital market. Ooi and Tan had then appealed to the Court of Appeal against the sentence.

The Court of Appeal, presided by Datuk Sulong bin Matjeraie JCA together with Dato' Mohd Hishamudin bin Haji Mohd Yunus JCA and Datuk Clement Allan Skinner JCA, on 4 November 2011, agreed with the decision of the High Court judge to impose a six months jail term as the sentence of a fine was manifestly inadequate and did not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offence. In its unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal emphasized that knowingly furnishing misleading information to the stock exchange is a serious offence because potential investors, both foreign and local rely on such information. The Court of Appeal affirmed that a custodial sentence was necessary in order to ensure that investors would not lose confidence in our market and to deter potential wrongdoers.  

Ooi and Tan were represented by their counsel Dato V. Sithambaram.  They are now currently serving their jail term.

SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA

MEMS Technology Bhd.  

(Public, KUL:MEMS)    

Officers and directors

Kathirgamasundaram Sooriakumar

Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technical Officer, Executive Director

Mei Ling Chew

Company Secretary

Cynthia Gloria Louis

Company Secretary

Suhaimi Bin Badrul Jamil

Independent Non-Executive Chairman

Azlan Bin Abas

Non-Independent Non-Executive Director

Aziuddin Bin Ahmad

Independent Non-Executive Director

Address

Unit 810, Block A, Phileo Damansara II 15 Jalan 16/11
Petaling Jaya, 46350
Malaysia
+60-3-76652282 (Phone)
+60-3-76602520 (Fax)

Website links

http://www.memstech.com/

MEMS Technology Berhad is a Malaysia-based investment holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is involved in manufacturing and packaging, including engineering services of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) products. The Company has two subsidiaries: Sensfab Pte. Ltd., which is a Singapore-based company engaged in the design, development, testing and manufacture of micro electro-mechanical systems based sensor products, and Senzpak (M) Sdn. Bhd., which is a Malaysia-based company engaged in the design, development, testing and assembly, packaging and manufacture of micro electro-mechanical systems.

For Further Reading,

2010, Court of Appeal, High Court Judge, Malaysia, MEMS, Ooi Boon Leong, SCM, Tan Yeow Teck, technology