The Court of Appeal today allowed Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)’s appeal to enhance sentences meted out against former executive directors of Welli Multi Corporation Bhd (Welli Multi), Ang Sun Beng and Ang Soon An, for furnishing misleading financial information to SC in 2005.
The court imposed a sentence of six months jail and a fine of RM400,000 against the two brothers, aged 71 and 67 respectively.
The Panel, chaired by Datuk Wira Mohtaruddin Baki sitting with Dato’ Seri Zakaria Sam and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, unanimously found that the crime committed was planned and intended to deceive investors and the capital market. In meting out the deterrent sentence, it ruled that the courts have a duty to protect the capital market and henceforth the country’s economy.
In 2010, Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court convicted Ang Sun Beng and Ang Soon An for furnishing misleading revenue figures involving over RM141 million in fictitious sales in Welli Multi’s 2005 annual report, reporting a profit of RM5 million when in fact it was facing a loss of RM35 million.
Ang Sun Beng and Ang Soon An were sentenced to a one-day jail term and a fine of RM400,000 in default one year imprisonment, after pleading guilty to the charges under section 122B(a)(bb) read together with section 122(1) of the Securities Industry Act 1983.
SC filed an appeal to the High Court against the sentence but the court dismissed the appeal in 2016. SC subsequently filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Welli Multi, later known as Energreen Corporation Bhd, was a listed corporation on the then Second Board of Bursa Malaysia. The company was later delisted on 17 August 2009. Ang Sun Beng was at the material time the Managing Director of the company while co-director Ang Soon An was a member of its Audit Committee.