FREE MALAYSIA TODAY. 26TH SEPTEMBER: Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd’s (SPNB) unit is alleging conspiracies to defraud the company in various affordable housing projects.
SPNB Aspirasi Sdn Bhd (SPNB Aspirasi), a wholly owned unit of national housing development company Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB), is suing SPNB’s former CEO Ahmad Azizi Ali, property developer Tunas Manja Development & Construction Sdn Bhd (TMDC), and 10 others on fraud allegations.
The company is seeking damages of at least RM141 million in land costs and loss of commercial opportunities.
According to court documents sighted by The Edge, the 12 parties are alleged to have conducted a series of conspiracies to defraud SPNB Aspirasi in affordable housing projects involving 469 terrace units in Kuantan, Pahang, between 2014 and 2019.
The company claimed to have been defrauded in 2015 to ink a RM108 million development agreement with TMDC (KL) Sdn Bhd, using fake documents approved by SPNB’s late chairman Ahri Hashim, and Azizi.
SPNB Aspirasi also named its former CEO Hisham Ahmad as defendant.
The others sued include TMDC’s owners Chin Yoke Choon, Chin Yoke Kan and Chin Tham Chui @ Chan Ching Swee; TMDC (KL) and its owners Rusli Ismail and Norhasina Hakim, and its lawyer Leong Yeng Kit; and Akitek Akiprima Sdn Bhd and its owner Cheah Kah Lip.
Lopsided agreement
The plaintiff claims that Azizi and Ahri influenced SPNB Aspirasi to enter a “lopsided supplementary development agreement” with TMDC (KL) in 2019 that contained terms favouring the latter.
Among the terms, TMDC (KL) was entitled to terminate the development agreement if SPNB Aspirasi defaults, and claim damages for the entire loss of project profits.
The project’s architecture firm Akitek Akiprima was said to have appointed four consultants without SPNB Aspirasi’s approval, and allegedly approved false claims from TMDC (KL) against SPNB Aspirasi, which triggered the event of default.
The implication, according to SPNB Aspirasi, was that Azizi and Ahri assisted TMDC (KL) to terminate the agreements, enabling TMDC (KL) to keep the land cost of RM33 million, and filing excessive profit loss claims against SPNB Aspirasi.
SPNB Aspirasi was then ordered to pay RM26.17 million to TMDC (KL) under an arbitration award, after having paid RM66.3 million under a 2015 development agreement.
TMDC (KL) subsequently filed a winding-up petition against SPNB Aspirasi in May due to non-payment of the arbitration award, and is scheduled for a hearing on Nov 22.
New SPNB chairman orders probe
The allegations came to light after SPNB’s new chairman Husam Musa, appointed on March 22 this year, instructed for an internal forensic investigation which uncovered the alleged fraud.
SPNB Aspirasi claim the agreements are now void and invalid ab initio (from the beginning) and must be set aside by the court, arguing they were “instruments of fraud”.
The writ of summons was filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Sept 24.
It is understood that SPNB Aspirasi is filing another suit against Azizi, Akitek Akiprima, and Wiradani Development Sdn Bhd and three others for allegedly conspiring to defraud the company through false claims and a lopsided supplementary agreement in a separate housing project.
SPNB was established in 1997 by the finance ministry to develop affordable housing for the people. It is now under the jurisdiction of the housing and local government ministry.