BPMB sues ex-MD, 26 others for alleged fraud, bribery involving RM400 million loan - Report

SHAH ALAM - Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd (BPMB) is suing 27 individuals and entities, including its former president and group managing director Datuk Mohd Zafer Hashim.

The lawsuit filed by the development financial institution (DFI) was in relation to a RM400 million loan granted to Aries Telecoms (M) Bhd, 10 years ago.

Local business newspaper The Edge today reported that BPMB is seeking RM564,99 million in losses and damages from the 27 people who were named as defendants in the suit.

Citing court documents, The Edge reported that the RM400 million loan granted in May 2012, was to partly finance a RM1.3 billion project by Aries for the installation of fibre optic network around Peninsular Malaysia.

BPMB which is wholly owned by the government through the Minister of Finance Inc also filed an application for an ex-parte Mareva injunction which is a temporary freezing order of assets against nearly all the defendants, the newspaper reported.

Those excluded were foreign companies, including a few incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

The application will be heard on Friday (July 1) before Commercial High Court judge Ong Chee Kwan in Kuala Lumpur.

Based on the court papers sighted by The Edge, BPMB has alleged that all of the defendants had conspired and used unlawful means to defraud the DFI and concealed such fraud and its proceeds from BPMB.

The loan, according to the DFI, was disbursed to Aries without it having fulfilled necessary conditions.

BPMB also claimed that the money, which was meant to be used for the project had been misused and that the sum was “syphoned and/or unjustifiably transferred” to other entities including Paneagle Holdings Bhd, BVS Trinity Sdn Bhd, VCB Malaysia Bhd, Orient Telecoms Sdn Bhd and Primawin Ltd, which were the defendants in the suit.

The loan approval was granted based on among others the appointment of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, China (Huawei China) as turnkey contractor to build, operate and maintain the network for the project. However, Huawei China was subsequently replaced by Paneagle Holdings without the full knowledge, consent or approval of BPMB.

Although Huawei was removed from the project, the loan was still disbursed in two tranches of RM200 million each to Aries (then known as V Telecoms Bhd) as Zafer had allegedly approved two separate waivers of certain conditions of the loan.

The other defendants in the suit were Aries director Wan Alias Wan Ngah and former director Roslina Ibrahim; Paneagle Sdn Bhd and its director Abdul Wahid Abdul Ghani; Open Fibre Sdn Bhd and its director Mohd Radzi Mohamed; and Orient Telecoms Sdn Bhd and its directors Mustafa Ali Zaminali Sayed, Muhammad Shazhakim Shazarul Hisham, and Shaza Arina Shazarul Hisham — the latter two being son and daughter of Roslina respectively.