KUALA LUMPUR (May 12): The boardroom tussle between two groups of feuding shareholders of Ire-tex Corp Bhd has moved up one notch, with police reports filed against existing and present directors of the company.

In one of four filings with Bursa Malaysia today, Ire-tex said its subsidiary Ire-tex Malaysia Sdn Bhd yesterday lodged a police report against its non-independent non-executive director Kong Hon Kay and group chief operating officer Christopher Purcell over payments totalling RM1.8 million made to OGL Asia Resources between June 2015 to Oct 2016.

The payments by Ire-tex Malaysia were approved by Kong and Purcell.

"In answering questions from the special review committee formed by the board to review the profit leakages of Ire-tex, payments to OGL were explained by Kong and Purcell as payments for 'sales commission to specified persons known to senior management'. (However,) Ire-tex has an existing sales team which already attends to customers and has not engaged OGL to do any sales or marketing for the company," said Ire-tex.

It added that further announcement(s) to Bursa on any material development will be made in due course.

In a separate filing with Bursa, Ire-tex said it has received a letter from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department informing it that a police report made by its former executive director Derick Soo Tee Wei on Jan 17, has been classified as a criminal breach of trust case and investigation papers pertaining to Zoomic Automation (M) Sdn Bhd have been opened.

Under the police report, Ire-Tex's former chairman Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid, co-founder and deputy chairman Datuk Dr Donald Yap Tatt Keat, Kong, Soo and Purcell had been named as directors of Zoomic.

It also revealed that there were unauthorised sale of machineries between August to October last year and on Nov 28, 2016, it was discovered that all the machinery and equipment in the Bayan Lepas, Penang premise were missing.

Recall that in 2015, Ire-tex’s auditor UHY Chartered Accountants had presented a qualified opinion on the group’s financial statements for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 in relation to a RM16.5 million purchase of machinery by Zoomic from Future Rank Sdn Bhd, which is a related party of Ire-Tex.

"The case is still under investigation," said Ire-Tex.
 
Another filing by Ire-Tex said it has received a letter from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department informing the group that the police had called three witnesses to assist in the investigation while waiting for bank statements from the bank.

The probe pertains to a police report made by its executive director Felix Chin Wui Choong on March 15 this year, concerning the removal of funds from the group in June and July 2014 which he alleged were not for any purpose of the group.

"The status of the case is under investigation where investigation is being conducted to prove the involvement of former director Datuk Tey Por Yee, who resigned on Feb 25, 2015, and Future Rank," said Ire-Tex.

In the fourth filing with Bursa, Ire-tex announced that it yesterday lodged a police report regarding a claim made by Kong in connection with an alleged police report.

"The group has requested that the police to investigate this unauthorised withdrawal of funds from the group," it added.

Ire-tex shares closed 2.27% lower at 21.5 sen today, valuing the group at RM29.62 million.