KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Corporation (BCorp) executive chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan clarified today that he was a passive investor in Sea Gamer Mall Sdn Bhd (SEAGM).
SEAGM was in the news recently after two of its executives were arrested by Malaysian authorities pending their extradition to the United States to face criminal charges laid by the US Department of Justice.
Tan said he was introduced to SEAGM in 2007 by a business associate and decided to invest in the company through a private entity and has since been a passive investor of the company.
“I also previously invested privately in another gaming and online platform MOL which I have since divested. My shareholding in SEAGM is entirely my personal investment which I may choose to divest when the time is right.
“As a passive investor, all day-to-day decisions in running the company and the business were left entirely in the hands of the key executives of SEAGM whom I considered to be an experienced and dynamic management team,” he said in a statement today.
Tan also said that the Berjaya Corporation Berhad Group of Companies has no interest whatsoever in SEAGM.
“My daughters, namely Nerine Tan and Chryseis Tan, were non-executive directors of SEAGM.
“At all times, my daughters had no involvement whatsoever in the running of the company. They were just my nominees on the Board of SEAGM.
“Both Nerine and Chryseis have in fact already resigned before this incident,“ he said.
“Following this incident, the management of SEAGM has stepped up security measures to protect all customer’s personal data and has assured me that they will extend their full cooperation to the authorities,“ Tan added.
“The two Malaysian executives of SEAGM were charged with abetting five Chinese hackers as the SEAGM online trading platform was allegedly used to sell the digital products stolen by the five Chinese hackers.
“Neither SEAGM nor the two executives possess the expertise or tools in computer intrusions and hacking. The two SEAGM executives maintain their innocence and have appointed Malaysian legal counsel to represent them,“ he said.
