KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 27): The Court of Appeal has, on Jan 26, allowed the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)'s application to strike out the suit filed by Crowe Horwath and two of its partners, Onn Kien Hoe and Lee Kok Wai.

In a statement today, the SC said that it had appealed against the High Court's decision in dismissing its application to strike out the suit filed by Crowe Horwath and its partners seeking protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 (WPA).

"In the Court of Appeal, SC submitted that its application to strike out the suit should be allowed as there was an abuse of the court process, given the initiation of multiple proceedings including four judicial review applications, to resist the Audit Oversight Board's (AOB) enforcement action against Lee Kok Wai and that the three parties are not entitled to the protection under the WPA," read the SC's statement.

To recap, Crowe Horwath and its partners initiated the action after the AOB reprimanded and imposed a penalty of RM50,000 on Lee Kok Wai for failing to comply with the International Standards on Auditing in relation to an audit on the financial statements of Silverbird Group Bhd for the financial year ended Oct 30, 2010.

"The Court of Appeal unanimously held that there were merits in the SC's appeal and ordered the three parties to pay costs to SC," said the regulator.