KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — The managing director of logging company TH Group Berhad was charged at the Sessions Court here today on 53 counts of acquiring more than 2.7 million of his company’s shares through confidential information, seven years ago.

Lei Lin Thai, 77, who was represented by Alex Tan pleaded not guilty to the charges read out to him.

Meanwhile, three women, Wong Joon Mui, 44, Chung Yin Mui, 64, and Lau Sin Ling, 44, also pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring with Lei after the charges against them were read out separately.

Lei was charged for allegedly acquiring 2.77 million units of shares through the Central Depository System accounts owned by Wong, Chung and Lau as well as another woman, Ng Lai Sim.

The managing director was charged to have obtained the shares through confidential information on the proposal for the privatisation of the TH Group Berhad through selective capital repayment, which was not publicly available.

The accused was alleged to have committed the offence at the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, Exchange Square, Bukit Kewangan here between June 5, 2008, to Sept 22, 2008, under Section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (Act 671) which allows for a jail sentence of up to 10 years and fine up to RM1 million, if found guilty.

Wong who was represented by Mohd Radhi Azizan was charged on 23 counts of conspiring with Lei to acquire 890,000 units of shares of TH Group Berhad, between Aug 1, 2008 and Sept 11, 2008.

Chung who was represented by Geraldine Oh, was charged with 13 counts of conspiring with Lei to acquire 557,700 of the company’s shares between June 5, 2008 to Aug 5, 2008 while Lau who was represented by lawyer Masleena Zaid was charged with six counts of conspiring with the same person to obtain 578,900 units of TH Group Berhad shares between Sept 15, 2008 to Sept 22, 2008.

All three women were charged with committing the offences at the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, under Section 370(1)(c) of the same act.

Judge Mat Ghani Abdullah later allowed Lei to post bail of RM300,000 with one surety while Wong and Chung posted bail of RM100,000 with one surety and their passports handed over to the court.

Meanwhile, Lau, a Singaporean, was imposed a bail of RM100,000 with two sureties of Malaysian citizens.

In a separate Sessions Court, Ng Lai Sim, 47, was charged with 11 counts of conspiring with Lei to acquire 740,000 units of the company’s shares at Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad between June 18, 2008 and July 24, 2008.

She was represented by Lim Kon Keen and charged under Section 370(1)(c) of the same act, which carries a similar sentence.

The court ordered all the cases to be jointly heard and fixed March 3 for mention of the case.

Prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Rosmawar Rozain from the Securities Commission. — Bernama