PETALING JAYA, Feb 23 — PKR’s Rafizi Ramli alleged today that Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) made a bad business decision in 2007 when it pumped nearly RM100 million into a beleaguered bread-making company only to see its investment fail to generate returns later.

At a press conference here, Rafizi claimed that when LTH bought shares in Silver Bird Group Berhad (now known as Hi-5 Conglomerate Berhad), it did so without checking on the company’s financial background.

“Firstly, three senior management were dragged to court for embezzling RM167 million of the company’s money. There were serious case of criminal breach of trust (CBT) brought against three top management staffs of (then) Silver Bird Group Berhad for embezzlement,” he told reporters.

According to Rafizi, LTH paid RM98 million for 90.483 million shares in Silver Bird Group, becoming its largest shareholder in 2007, followed by business tycoon Berjaya Group’s Tan Sri Vincent Tan.

The shares, he said, which were snapped up between September and October that year, then skyrocketed in value from 39 sen to RM1.08 in October 16.

When LTH exited Silver Bird and sold off its shares mid-2014, however, prices had by then already plummeted to between a RM0.07 and RM0.08.

Rafizi said that currently, Hi-5 Conglomerate’s shares are only valued at RM 0.04.

“This in a way gives you an idea that if Tabung Haji had done its due diligence, you would have been careful because your due diligence would have highlighted the possibility of this. Clearly this was not done,” he told reporters.

Rafizi claimed that last year, two Silver Group Berhad managers were charged with embezzlement over a contract involving Koperasi Permodalan Felda (KPF) Malaysia.

“They were involved as the logistics provider for Felda’s programme, through another subsidiary company,” he said.

However the duo – one, a former chief executive of Silver Group and another, now the ex-director of KPF, were acquitted of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in December last year by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Rafizi claimed that the company’s shares have fallen sharply, and in 2011 was suspended by Bursa Malaysia and listed under the PN17 category.

PN17 means that a company is still listed on the exchange, but is barred from trading its shares.

He added that for the financial year ending 31 October 2011, Silverbird recorded RM44 million in accumulated losses.

Rafizi questioned why LTH bought so many Silverbird shares in 2007 as to cause its price to spike and resulted in the pilgrims fund paying a 177 per cent premium.