Kit Siang calls on Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to invoke his powers for the first time under Securities Industry Act 1983 to direct an investigation by Registrar of Companies into the $3-$5 million shares scam involving illegal shares dealing in Tampin
Parliamentary opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, last night called on the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to invoke his powers for the first time under Section 102 of the Securities Industry Act 1983 to direct the Registrar of Companies to investigate into the $3-$5 million shares scam involving illegal shares dealing in Tampin.
Mr.Lim said that what has happened in a small town like Tampin, where some 100 small invertors may have lost $3 to $5 million from the shares scam involving illegal shares dealing, could the the tin of a national icebero which could amount to hundreds of millions of ringgit.
Mr.Lim said this in a packed dialogue with the victims of the shares scam at the Ai Lok Club premises in Tampin last night. Also present at the dialogue was the DAPSY National Chairman and MP for Kota Melaka. Lim Guan Eng, the Malacca State Chairman and Assemblyman for Tranquerah, Sim Tong Him, other Malacca and Negri Sembilan Assemblymen and state leaders.
Mr.Lim said that it is the duty of the Minister of the Finance to oversee the operation of the Securities Industry Act (SIA) 1983 to protect the interests of all small investors and it would make a complete mockery of both the SIA and Anwar Ibrahim’s repeated calls for honesty and uprightness since becoming Finance Minister if the Ministry of the Finance claims that it is powerless to intervene in the Tampin shares scam.
Deputy Finance Minister, Loke Yuen Yow, does not know his own Ministry’s responsibility and the law
The Parliamentary Opposition Leader said he was shocked by the statement and attitude of the Deputy Finance Minister, Loke Yuen Yow, on the issue when he came to Tampin a few days ago. Loke said that the Tampin shares scam was strictly a cheating case between the shares investors and one Miss Yow, who had run a shares dealing business in Tampin for about four years, and that this was purely a police case.
Mr.Lim said: ”It would appear that Loke Yuen Yow knows nothing about the Securities Industry Act and in particular Section 102 which states: ’Where it appears to the Minister (of Finance) that it is in the national or public interest that an investigation be carried out into any matters relating to dealing in securities, the Minister may, by instrument in writing, direct the Registrar (of Companies) to arrange for an investigation into those matters.
“I am not in the least surprised if the Deputy Finance Minister is not aware of the duties and responsibilities of his Ministry under the SIA.
“Alternatively, if Loke is aware of the provisions in the Securities Industry Act, and in particular Section 102, then he had acted in a most irresponsible manner in claiming that the Tampin shares scam involving illegal shares dealing had nothing to do with the Ministry of Finance.
“There is no doubt that in this case, it is both in the national and public interest for the Minister of Finance to direct an investigation by the Registrar of Companies into the Tampin shares scam as it involved illegal dealing in securities.”
Mr.lim said it was clear from the accounts given by the victims of the Tampin shares scam, 42 of whom had lodged police reports, that the Securities Industry Act had been violated not only by Miss Yow, who is in hiding, but also by two stockbroking firms in Malacca.
According to the shares scam victims, Miss Yow’s daily turnover at its peak could be as high as $500,000 to $1 million, and she could phone direct to the stockbroking firm in Malacca for instant shares transactions, whether for sale or purchase.
This means that Miss Yow was not only dealing in securities, and was acting as a ‘dealer’s representative’ of these stock-broking firms-for these stockbroking firms cannot claim that they were not aware that Miss Yow was dealing with securities when the daily turnover could be as high as $500,000 to $1 million for different investors.
A ‘dealer’s representative’ is defined in the Securities Industry Act to ‘means a person, whatever name described, in the direct employment of, or acting for, or by arrangement with, a dealer… who performs for that dealer any of the functions of a dealer’.
Mr.Lim said that as Miss Yow’s turnover in her dealing with securities were as high as $500,000 to $1 million a day in peak periods, a full investigation by the Registrar of Companies under Section 102 of the SIA, which could call up all documents can records of the stockbroking firms, would show that these stockbroking firms could not deny that she was in effect operating as their ‘dealer’s representative’!
Mr.Lim called on the two stockbroking firms concerned to come forwards to accept their responsibility in the Tampin shares scam and to compensate the Tampin investors for their losses.
Mr.Lim also advised Miss Yow to come out of hiding and to surrender herself to the police.
At the end of the meeting, three resolutions were passed. The first one urged the Police to act immediately to apprehend Miss Yow as 42 police reports had been lodged against her in the shares scam.
The second called on the two stockbroking firms to accept responsibility for the shares scam in Tampin as they could not now claim that Miss Yow as not acting as their dealer’s representative and to compensate the investors for their losses amounting to $3 to $5 million.
The theird resolution called on the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to invoke Section 102 of the Securities Industry Act to direct the Registrar of Companies to investigate the Tampin shares scam involving illegal dealing in securities, which is a violation of the SIA; and especially as the Tampin shares scam could only be the tip of a national iceberg.