Ipoh High Court dismisses suit against Bestino Group Bhd directors, shareholders

IPOH: The High Court here today dismissed a suit filed by minority shareholders against two directors and two major shareholders of gold investment company Bestino Group Berhad.
Judge Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali dismissed the suit by the minority shareholders who had used the name of Bestino Group Berhad as the plaintiff without any orders as to costs.
In his judgment. Che Mohd Ruzima said the plaintiffs should not have filed the suit under Section 181(A) of the Companies Act 1965 against the four.
He said they should have instead filed the suit against the company.
The plaintiffs were represented by counsel Effa Ruzana Anuar and Yudistra Darma Dorai while the defendants by counsel R. Raj Shankar and K.Kumaran.
In July last year, the Ipoh High Court had allowed an application by 6,764 minority shareholders of the company to proceed with derivative action to determine whether their rights had been trampled on.
In February 2011, two Bestino directors were charged in the Sessions Court here with 322 counts of money laundering involving RM156 million and five counts of illegal deposit taking in the two years the company was in operation.
Bank Negara had also seized assets of the company under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2011 totalling RM24.2 million as evidence material.
Some 200 minority shareholders of the company had turned up as early as 8am to find out the outcome of the suit. — Bernama