KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): Datasonic Group Bhd deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben, who has been implicated in graft charges brought against former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, acquired 200,000 shares of the group in one transaction today.

According to the group's stock exchange filing with Bursa Malaysia today, his direct interest in the group is now 15.12% or 204.16 million unit shares. He also has an indirect interest in 9.72% or 131.15 million units.

Altogether, he now controls 24.84% in Datasonic, which is marginally less than the 25.82% he held on Oct 16 — 14.18% being direct and 11.64% being indirect — after a slew of share transactions, including the transfer of some shares between his nominee accounts.

Datasonic came under the limelight after the group's name was mentioned in the graft charges Ahmad Zahid was slapped with last Friday. The news sparked heavy selldown in the group's shares, which resulted in its share price tumbling 25.5 sen in a day to 44 sen.

The stock retreated further to settle at 38.5 sen today.  

According to the charge sheet against Zahid, he allegedly received a bribe from Chew on April 26, 2017, in the form of two cheques worth RM5 million and RM1 million to a Maybank account owned by Lewis & Co.

Zahid, under his capacity as the Home Minister then, allegedly facilitated the appointment of Datasonic subsidiary, Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd, to undertake a five-year contract to provide 12.5 million chips for Malaysian passports to the Immigration Department under a direct negotiation process at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, Datasonic has denied that neither the company nor its directors has made payment to Ahmad Zahid in relation to the supply of chips for passports.

At market close today, the shares dropped 3 sen further or 7.23% to 38.5 sen for a market capitalisation of RM519.75 million.