[PHNOM PENH POST]
The local subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based firm is embroiled in a lawsuit
against its former directors who allegedly defrauded a foreign investor
of millions of dollars and misused company funds, according to
documents obtained by The Post yesterday.
The documents concern a
court case brought by representatives of Hong Kong-based Enviro Group
Holdings Limited who are suing John Davies and Lim Lian Tho – both
former company directors of Phnom Penh-based subsidiary Enviro
Corporation (Cambodia) Ltd – and Mark McCluskey, a lawyer for John
Davies.
Lim Lian Siah, the brother of Lim Lian Tho and former
general manager of Star Private Enterprise Ltd – a company that was
bought by Enviro Corporation after it went bankrupt – is also being sued
for the return of equipment purchased with company funds.
It is
alleged in the documents that John Davies, Lim Lian Tho and accomplices
falsified papers and deceived a group representative in Hong Kong into
increasing the share capital of Enviro Group from 10,000 shares to 200
million shares in order to attract foreign investors in 2008. They then
allegedly sold a Swiss investor 10 million shares worth around US$2.3
million, which was transferred to an account at the Foreign Trade Bank
of Cambodia, from which they later withdrew around $575,000.
Sok
Raden, executive director of Enviro Corporation in Cambodia and also a
board director and shareholder at Enviro Group in Hong Kong, said
yesterday that the subsidiary had first filed a complaint on behalf of
the group to Phnom Penh Municipal Court in 2008.
He claimed that
company funds had also been misused to set up a subsidiary company in
Malaysia – Enviro Corporation (Malaysia) – which listed John Davies and
Lim Lian Tho as the sole shareholders and directors.
“The money
sent to that company [in Malaysia]… [was] from the Hong Kong company. I
asked the court to charge John [Davis] and all these associates who
committed fraud and who misled to destroy the company,” he said.
He
added that he wished the court to recoup $1.7 million for the Swiss
investor, which he claimed remained at FTB, and retrieve funds allegedly
used to open subsidiaries and to punish the three men for criminal
offences. Contact details for lawyers representing the three accused
were not available.
Nauv Thuok, director-general of the forestry
department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said
yesterday that the government had granted Enviro Corporation more than
20,000 hectares of land for a seaweed development project in Kampot
province, more than 10,000 hectares for development of jatropha in
Kampong Speu province and an unspecified amount of land in Koh Kong.
Jatropha can be used to produce biodiesel.
He added that the all
of the company’s projects were postponed in 2008, due to a fraud case
allegedly involving John Davies and Lim Lian Tho.
“The
postponement of Enviro Corporation’s project activities has really
affected villagers’ living conditions because they lost work and could
not generate income to support their families,” he said.
Pol
Lim, secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, said that he was
aware of the dispute but could not comment as the case was ongoing.
“In
the future, the government will strengthen its laws and follow up all
companies’ project activities after they are approved for land
concession projects,” he said.
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