KUALA LUMPUR: Founder of Berjaya Corp Group of companies Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun has said neither he nor Berjaya has donated “millions and billions of ringgit” to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) or opposition parties.

In a statement last Friday, the billionaire said such an allegation, originally carried on a blog named MyKMU.net and subsequently reported by the DigitalEdge Daily on Aug 6, was baseless. The daily hereby apologises for carrying the offending article.

Below is the reproduction of his statement, in full:

I refer to the DigitalEdge Daily’s article of August 6, 2015 titled ‘Pro Mahathir businessmen donated to opposition parties, says blog’.

I wish to categorically deny the veracity of the statements in your article that I or my Berjaya Group have donated the millions and billions of ringgit to Pakatan Rakyat or opposition parties as suggested in your article. It is obvious that the allegations are purely a figment of the writer’s imagination and were crafted for purposes of sensationalism that could well have the effect of souring the goodwill I and the Berjaya Group have with the government.

While you may claim that you are quoting from a letter published in the blog MyKMU.net, these are nevertheless mischievous, slanderous and completely baseless allegations. 

It is disheartening to note that these days just about anybody can make use of the Internet to spread lies and sensationalise baseless accusations for their own twisted agenda. A credible online news portal should have, and indeed have a legal and moral duty, to verify these stories before publishing them.

The DigitalEdge Daily made no attempt, whatsoever, to verify the truth of these scurrilous allegations, with me or anyone at Berjaya Group before you went to publication. I find this totally abhorrent and unprofessional from a supposedly well-regarded online news portal like yourself.  

The very nature of these incredulous allegations should have raised questions of their veracity and warranted further investigation on your part before the article was published.

Your article has caused much embarrassment to me personally and Berjaya Group and I have already received numerous calls sent from my iPhone

I hereby demand a public apology from the DigitalEdge Daily, which is to be published immediately on your news portal without prejudice to any further action which I may take against DigitalEdge Daily. Berjaya Group and I reserve all our rights in this matter.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 10, 2015.