TRI sues Tajuddin, ex-directors to recover RM56 mil
Technology Resources Industries (TRI) is suing tycoon Tajudin Ramli and two ex-directors to recover RM56 million ringgit in controversial payments, the company said.
In a statement issued late yesterday, TRI's parent Celcom said it also sought the return of two luxury cars a Daimler and a Mercedes Benz that were sold to Tajudin and his brother Bistamam Ramli for RM1 each.
Celcom, the country's second largest mobile phone operator, said former TRI chairman and chief executive Tajudin, Bistamam and Lim Kheng Yew were named as defendants.
"TRI has sought the repayment of the remuneration paid by TRI to each of the three defendants for their purported loss of office" including pension fund contributions and income tax deductions, the statement said.
TRI also sought repayment from each of the defendants RM11 million purportedly paid to each of them as bonus or incentive payments for the successful completion of its four-billion-ringgit debt restructuring, it added.
Payments 'legal'
The three defendants quit the TRI board in July following a bitter power tussle with Telekom Malaysia after the latter bought a 31.25 percent stake in
Lim has defended the payments as "legal" as it was approved by the TRI board in July before they resigned.
"Why did I work 16 hours a day for the past two and a half years? It is one of the conditions in my contract and I believe the same condition is in the contracts of (Tajudin) and his brother," he told AFP's financial news wire AFX-Asia .
Apart from the controversial severance payment to the three, the new TRI board last month also lodged a police report over alleged fake invoices worth RM259.32 million issued in 1998 and 1999.
TRI feared the fictitious invoices, discovered during a series of audits commissioned by the new board, would have an impact on its finances.
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