Sime Bank ex-CEO’s 16-year court battle over

KUALA LUMPUR: "You are a free man now and there is no need for you to come to court any more."
These were the words said by counsel Kitson Foong to former Sime Bank chief executive officer Datuk Ismail Zakaria after the High Court allowed an application to strike out an appeal by Bank Negara.
The central bank had appealed against Ismail's acquittal over the approving of a credit facility, amounting to RM175 million, during the country's worst financial crisis in 1997.
Justice Datuk Azman Husin allowed the application after Foong told the court the respondent, Bank Negara, had failed to turn up in court even after several postponements of the appeal were granted to facilitate the prosecution.
"The failure of the respondent to turn up in court repeatedly shows that they have no more interest in this matter," said Foong.
On Sept 12, 2011, Ismail was acquitted and discharged by the Sessions Court on four charges of acting beyond his authority to approve credit facilities totalling RM175 million to an investment company.
Ismail, 71, was charged with approving RM59 million, RM50 million, RM40 million and RM26 million to Everise Capital Sdn Bhd.
He was accused of committing the offences between Sept 20, 1997, and Oct 21, 1997, in his office on the second floor of Sime Bank Building in Jalan Sultan Ismail here. – Bernama