E-Payment portal company MyEG Services Bhd has denied knowing the company named in corruption charges against former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
- MyEG claims it never paid anyone to secure any government concessions
- Firm accused of paying Zahid RM13.5 million shrouded in mystery
- Datasonic says it won five-year contract through open tender
MyEG in a filing with Bursa Malaysia said it “had no knowledge” of Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services which allegedly paid Zahid kickbacks amounting to RM13.25 million to secure projects under the payment portent for government services.
“The company and the board would like to clarify that both the company and the board have no knowledge of the firm Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services named in the charges and its board of directors,” it said.
MyEG added that the company has never made any payments to anyone to secure any concession from the government.
Zahid who was also former Home Minister, was today charged with eight counts of corruption, three of which involve receiving cheques as gratification from Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services.
The gratification was allegedly received in 24 cheques between July 15, 2016, and February 8, 2017.
MyEG emphasised in its statement that the charges were against Zahid personally, who is now Umno president, and not the company.
Malaysiakini reported that the owner of Mastoro Kenny as mentioned in the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) records is one M Kumaraguru, 46.
The news portal has established that the same individual owns Mentari Maju Textiles and was charged with money laundering on March 14 this year.
He was reported as having committed the offence between Jan 17 and Feb 23, 2017.
This is within the timeline in which Mastoro Kenny is alleged to have paid some of the RM13.25 million to Zahid.
Kumaraguru registered Mastoro Kenny on Aug 19, 2016, with an office in Scott Garden, Jalan Klang Lama.
Neither Mastoro Kenny nor Mentari Maju Textiles has an online presence, and according to the CCM, both companies’ registration expired on Aug 18, 2017, and July 11, 2017, respectively.
Another company named in other corruption charges against Zahid also issued a statement to deny ever having made payment to him.
“Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB, Datasonic’s subsidiary) won a five-year contract to supply passport polycarbonate data pages and a printing system through an open tender in April 2012.”
It said DTSB was awarded a contract to supply 12.5 million chips on Dec 15, 2015, based on enhanced chips security (to put the chips bonded into the polycarbonate data page, instead of at the back of passport cover) and at 15% lower pricing than the previous vendor.
This provided total savings of RM56.25 million to the government over a period of five years, it added.
Two of the charges said Zahid received gratification in April 2017 amounting to RM6 million from Chew Ben Ben, a director of Data Sonic Bhd (as written in the charge sheet), as a reward for appointing the company to carry out the insertion of 12.5 million biodata passport chips for five years.
As news of Zahid’s charges broke, both MyEG and Datasonic counters hit their lower daily limits.
Bursa Malaysia suspended the proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) for both stocks.
The stocks will resume trading next Monday.
At market break, MyEG fell 37 sen or 24.67% to RM1.13, giving it a market capitalisation of RM5.22 billion. It was the most actively traded counter, with 169.89 million shares done.
The counter reached its 30% limit down of RM1.05 earlier today, before paring losses.
Datasonic, on the other hand, was the third most actively traded counter, with 58.89 million shares traded.
The group’s share price fell 25.5 sen or 36.69% to 44 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM938.25 million.
The counter also touched its limit-down level of 39.5 sen earlier today, before regaining lost ground.