Astral Supreme sues ex-MD over RM15.5m losses

PETALING JAYA: Astral Supreme Bhd, which is conducting a second investigative review of its financial statements for the past three financial years, is suing its former managing director Ong Tai Chin @ Wong Tai Chin for causing the company to suffer a total of RM15.51 million losses.
In a filing with the stock exchange, the firm said it had filed a legal suit against Ong last Tuesday for breaching fiduciary duty and duty of care under Section 132 of the Companies Act, 1965 after an investigative review the company had commissioned on May 2, 2014 following the qualification of its audited accounts for Dec 31, 2013 by its auditors.
"The losses were discovered by Messrs. Morison Anuarul Azizan Chew, the statutory auditors and Messrs. PKF Advisory Sdn Bhd, the special auditors for the company's annual audited accounts for its financial year ended 31 December 2013," Astral Supreme added.
Following the adjustments and reclassification of items based on the transactions identified by the statutory auditors and special auditors, Astral Supreme suffered losses of RM15.51 million.
Astral Supreme claimed that Ong, who had been serving the company for nearly three years, has breached his fiduciary duties and not carried out his duty of care during his tenure as managing director of the company.
Astral Supreme said the group is not expected to incur any further losses arising from the writ and statement of claim.
The investigative review announced on Aug 8, 2014 is a follow up of the review commissioned on May 2, 2014, which will include the retroactive review of transactions, company records, management accounts, perceptive interviews, personnel files of selected staff, which will start on August 18 and is targeted for completion within two months.
For the financial ended December 31, 2013, Astral Supreme saw a 154% deviation between its audited and unaudited accounts loss, from net losses of RM25.59 million from RM10.08 million in its unaudited accounts.
Astral Supreme, which has been in the limelight in recent months, appointed Datuk Chai Woon Chet as the new managing director effective March 5, replacing Ong who disposed of his last block of 2.38% stake in Astral Supreme for 22 sen per share on the same day.
Ong joined Astral Supreme on September 20, 2011 and saw its shareholding in the company reach a peak of about 23% back in 2012, a period when the trading in penny stocks heightened.
The emergence of Chai in the company early this year saw the departure of Ong.
Chai, the son of timber tycoon Tan Sri Chai Kin Kong, is also the managing director of XOX Bhd and making a bid to gain board control of Harvest Court Industries Bhd.