KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Datuk Ng Peng Hay has been suspended as chairman by the board of directors of Kojadi.
In a statement today, Ng claimed the 14 members of the board met at 2.30pm today to discuss and decide the position of the chairman and decided to suspend him.
Ng claimed he did nothing wrong, describing the suspension as unlawful.
“The suspension is arbitrary and has no legal basis, I reserve all my rights.”
To put things into context, Ng listed down the chronology of events beginning two weeks ago when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced civil forfeitures on 41 companies alleged to have ties with 1MDB.
Kojadi, a public listed MCA co-op was one of the companies being investigated, which triggered an emergency board meeting on 27 June.
According to Ng, the board decided to authorise the chairman to cooperate with MACC, seek legal opinion on the matter and consult MCA president Datuk Wee Ka Siong on the matter.
“I made arrangements to meet with an MACC official, before I could confirm an appointment at 11.19pm on the same day I received a whatsapp message from Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong which among other instructions directed the directors “DONT ATTEND ANY MEETING/INTERVIEW WITH MACC UNTIL WE MEET UP NEXT WEEK”.
“I objected to this interference and by Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong and as a mark of protest I resigned from MCA as a party member after 45 years,” Ng said in the statement.
Ng had previously chided Wee for acting as though he owned Kojadi going as far as to tell him not to meddle in its affairs.
He said the co-operative’s RHB bank account number: 26423600008938 is now frozen for the next 90 days and that it could have been avoided is Wee had not interfered and the board members had the conviction to follow through with their earlier decision.
“On July 3, I met Mohd Zamri Zainul Abidin a director of the Anti-Money Laundering Agency. He wanted to freeze all Kojadi accounts for 90 days pending investigation.
“I appealed to him that Kojadi had separated this RM15 million grant into an RHB account so it’s not fair to freeze all accounts. He relented and asked for the account number of RHB. He then issued the freezing order only against Kojadi RHB account.
“I have served on the board of Kojadi for the last 23 years. Today, I am suspended for doing the right thing!” said Ng.
MACC suspended Kojadi’s bank accounts under Section 44(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 yesterday.
