SC reprimands, fines five directors of Trive Property

PETALING JAYA: The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) yesterday reprimanded and fined five directors of Trive Property Group Bhd for knowingly furnishing false or misleading statements in the 2014 audited financial statements of the company to SC and Bursa Malaysia.

The SC’s sanctions arose as a result of its findings that Trive failed to perform an impairment assessment on its development expenditure amounting to RM21.1 million as at July 31, 2014 in accordance with the approved accounting standards – Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) 136: Impairment of Assets.

This resulted in Trive and its five directors breaching regulations of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007.

Given the severity of the directors’ failure to discharge their duties in ensuring that financial statements submitted to the regulators are true and fair, the SC imposed a total fine of RM2.55 million on the directors.

Three directors, Wong Kok Seong, Thu Soon Shien and Datuk Mohamad Amin Mohamad Salleh, who at the relevant time were audit committee members, were fined RM539,000 each. Two other directors, Datuk Seri Dr Pang Chow Huat and Zarul Ikhwan Zarul Ahmad were fined RM465,500 each. Wong and Thu are still directors in Trive, while the others have since left.

Wong is the chairman of the audit, nominating, remuneration and employee share option scheme committees. Thu is a member of the audit, nominating and remuneration committees.

Separately, the SC reprimanded Trive and directed it to appoint an external auditor to assess the adequacy of the company’s financial reporting function.

“SC reminds all listed corporations, directors and CEOs to be vigilant and ensure adherence to all relevant financial reporting standards and disclosure requirements at all times. SC views noncompliance with approved accounting standards and disclosure requirements as a serious breach,” the regulator said.