Malaysia’s regulator blames Serbia Dynamics for demanding arrest of CEO

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s securities regulator has said it is demanding the arrest of Serbian Dynamics Holdings, the chief executive of oil and gas services, and has accused company officials of sending a false statement to the country’s stock market.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission in Malaysia (SC) also said that it had obtained an arrest warrant for Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah, the Serbian general manager and managing director of the group. The regulator said the CEO is “free now.”

The Serb refused to comment until the police did not immediately respond to the request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Abdul Karim for comment or his location.

The regulator said the false statement was linked to the revenue figure of 6.014 billion ringgit ($ 1.44 billion) published by Serbia in the quarterly report ended 31 December 2020.

The investigation into Serbia began in May following a report by KPMG’s external auditor.

The latter expressed concern that it could not verify contracts and transactions worth 3.5 billion ringgit with 11 Serbian customers. KPMG resigned in June after Serbia filed a lawsuit.

KPMG said it would strongly oppose any court proceedings, but did not comment after resigning as auditor.

Serbia appointed EY Consulting as its special independent evaluator in July after Bursa Malaysia issued a directive that the company should review the issues raised by KPMG.

But Serbia filed a lawsuit last month against EY Consulting in an attempt to prevent the release of any findings about the group.

Bursa Malaysia and EY Consulting did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shares of Serbia have been suspended since December 15 after paying $ 222.22 million. A stock exchange document said the incident could have a significant impact on the group’s financial performance.

($ 1 = 4.1800 ringgit)