KUALA LUMPUR (March 16): Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) has withdrawn the discovery application it filed in the US last week against the managing director of non-governmental organisation Liberty Shared, following a clarification by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).
“The discovery application was predicated on SDP’s understanding that an investigation had commenced as a result of the complaint lodged by Duncan Jepson of Liberty Shared to the SC,” said SDP in a statement today.
However, the SC has clarified that there is no investigation into Jepson’s complaint against SDP at present, the plantation giant said in a statement today.
Last week, SDP announced that it has commenced legal proceedings against Jepson to obtain critical information pertaining to his complaint, which alleged that SDP had made wrongful disclosures in its 2019 Sustainability Report.
The SC had commenced investigations into Jepson’s complaint and had accordingly sought additional information from SDP, the planter added.
Liberty Shared had filed a complaint with the US Customs and Border Protection in April 2020, alleging the use of forced labour in the production of palm oil at SDP’s Malaysian estates.
SDP was made aware of this complaint in July last year, when the NGO issued a summary of the complaint on its website. According to SDP, this summary did not contain sufficient information to allow it to close any alleged gaps in its operations that would have benefitted its workforce.
SDP’s shares closed one sen or 0.2% lower at RM4.89 today, valuing the plantation firm at RM33.67 billion.
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