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Case Update: Federal Court Decides on Issue of Leave to Sue Liquidator Personally

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I set out a case update on the Federal Court decision of Tee Siew Kai v Machang Indah Development Sdn Bhd (see the Grounds of Judgment dated 17 February 2020). The decision is on the law applicable to the grant of leave to sue a liquidator in his personal capacity. This decision reverses the Court of Appeal decision in Tee Siew Kai (as liquidator for Merger Acceptance Sdn Bhd) (in liquidation) v Machang Indah Development Sdn Bhd (in liquidation) (previously known as Rakyat Corp Sdn Bhd [2019] 2 MLJ 514.

This decision reiterates the importance of leave of the Court in order to avoid wasteful litigation against liquidators and to preclude unwarranted interference with the winding up process. There must be a prima facie case made out, the Court must evaluate the evidence to see if this has been met, and pecuniary loss suffered by the company must be shown. Continue reading →

Artificial Intelligence has Arrived for Criminal Sentencing

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We will be seeing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Malaysia courts for the first time this week. AI will be used to give guidance to a Magistrate Court Judge on the sentencing of certain criminal offences. The public prosecutor and the defence counsel will still get a chance to submit and comment on the sentencing guideline generated by the AI system. The Magistrate Judge will have the final discretion on the sentence to impose.

This article will set out how this AI system will be implemented. This is based on the various news reports (see here, here and here) and the presentation made by the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima David Wong Dak Wah at the Selangor Bar Civil Law Conference on 14 February 2020. I anticipate that there will be more clarity once the system is up and running. Continue reading →

Six Points on Leave to Appeal to the Federal Court

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At the recent Civil Law Conference on 14 February 2020, there was a list of good pointers, statistics and tips set out in the session on leave to appeal to the Federal Court. This post sets out the chances of success and examples of questions where leave was allowed.

As a brief background, in Malaysia, the apex court is the Federal Court. For matters that originated at the High Court, the final level of appeal is before the Federal Court. But an appeal to the Federal Court is not as of right. There must first be an application for leave, or permission, to appeal to the Federal Court. The test for leave is that there must be a question to be decided for the first time or a question of importance where a Federal Court decision would be to public advantage. Where leave is allowed, the Federal Court would then allow the appeal proper to be heard.

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Talk on Resolving Boardroom and Shareholders Disputes

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On Tuesday 7 April 2020, I will be speaking at the Companies Commission of Malaysia seminar on ‘Resolving Boardroom and Shareholders Disputes‘. It is a half day talk from 9am to 1pm and with a registration fee of RM250 or RM300. It is open to members of the public.

I am looking forward to sharing practical insight from the various cases I have worked on. I frequently receive queries from company secretaries, directors and shareholders on certain disputes. I then designed this seminar around these often raised issues. Continue reading →

The Airbus Bribery Case Study: Six Corporate Liability Lessons for Malaysian Companies

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I set out six cautionary lessons for Malaysian companies arising from the Airbus US$4 billion global resolution for bribery involving authorities from the UK, France and the United States.

In the UK, Airbus faced five counts of failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery. This was under section 7 of the UK Bribery Act. This section 7 is a similar provision to Malaysia’s section 17A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, known as the corporate liability provision. I have written about the elements of Malaysia’s corporate liability here.

You can read the UK High Court grounds of judgment in relation to the Airbus settlement through the deferred prosecution agreement. You can also read the detailed agreed Statement of Facts for all the background facts.

From the Airbus case study, I set out below six cautionary lessons for Malaysian companies, especially where we are on the brink of seeing the introduction of corporate liability on 1 June 2020. Continue reading →

How to Qualify as a Liquidator in Malaysia

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Qualified persons can now apply to be licensed as liquidators, or also known as insolvency practitioners, in Malaysia. This allows for the licence holder to take on appointments as: (i) liquidator; (ii) receiver or receiver and manager; (iii) judicial manager; and (iv) a nominee in a corporate voluntary arrangement.

The Accountant General of Malaysia recently issued its Guidelines for Qualification as Liquidator under the Companies Act 2016 (CA 2016) dated 21 January 2020 (only available in the Malay language). This now allows for qualified persons to apply for a liquidator licence under the CA 2016.

I write about the past qualification route for liquidators under the Companies Act 1965 (CA 1965) and this new qualification regime under the CA 2016. Continue reading →