KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — MyEG Services Bhd asked Bursa Malaysia to suspend trading of its shares that fell over 24 per cent today and after the firm was implicated in corruption charges against former home minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Investor attention fell on MyEg and Datasonic Group Bhd after both were directly linked to bribes Zahid allegedly received while he had still been in control of the Home Ministry.
“The Board of Directors of MYEG has requested and Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad has approved for a suspension of trading of its securities from 2.00pm to 5.30pm on 19 October 2018 pending an announcement to clarify the news article dated 19 October 2018 appearing on theedgemarkets.com titled ‘Datasonic, MyEG implicated in charges against Zahid’,” the firm said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
This is the second time that MyEG shares have been hammered in the exchange since the general election.
Its links to the defeated Barisan Nasional caused investors to dispose of its shares shortly after May 9, forcing trade to be suspended repeatedly after MyEG shares kept hitting limit down.
In its own filing to Bursa Malaysia, Datasonic said neither the company nor its directors paid Ahmad Zahid any fee as inducement for him to award a subsidiary the contract to supply biodata chips used in Malaysian passports issued by the Immigration Department.
The denial is consistent with the charges against the former home minister, in which prosecutors alleged that the bribes were made through a third party: one Chew Ben Ben, a director of Data Sonic Technologies Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary, using funds belonging to a Sarana Kencana Sdn Bhd.
Zahid is accused of accepting RM6 million in bribes in two payments to directly negotiate the supply contract.
“DTSB was awarded for the supply of 12.5 million chips on 15 December 2015 based on value proposition of enhanced chips security (to put the chips bonded into the polycarbonate datapage instead of at the back of passport cover) and 15 per cent lower pricing as compared to the previous vendor that provided a total saving of RM56.25 million to the government over a period of 5 years,” Datasonic said in its filing.
Zahid claimed trial to 45 charges of money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and corruption today.
He was released after meeting half of the RM2 million bail set by the Sessions Court.
