PAS wants SC to act against Vincent Tan
By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — The Securities Commission (SC) must fulfil its vow and act against Berjaya Corporation boss Tan Sri Vincent Tan for allegedly misleading the market that he had received a football betting licence, PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa told The Malaysian Insider today.
Husam is pushing the commission to act on its promise made just weeks ago that it would take action against the Chinese tycoon should there be elements of misrepresentation with regards to Berjaya Corporation Berhad’s (BCorp) proposed acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd for its sports betting licence.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak caved under public pressure and said the finance ministry — which he also helms — will no longer give a licence to Tan’s gaming vehicle, Ascot Sports.
Najib said the ministry had the right to withdraw licences at any time and was not obliged to compensate Ascot Sports.
He added the gaming company had been informed and had accepted the decision.
The PM had earlier signalled an intent to do so in an effort to legalise sports gaming, a highly lucrative industry, which also exacts a high social price.
“Berjaya did inform the SC it got approval for this betting,” Husam (picture) pointed out in a text message from Jakarta, noting the listed company’s announcement last month.
In the statement on May 12, BCorp said “the Minister of Finance has given its approval for the re-issuance to Ascot of the licence to carry out sports betting operations upon certain terms and conditions.
“Ascot proposes to commence its sports betting operation in the 2nd half of the year 2010 with its retail betting operations being housed at 220 selected Sports Toto outlets, subject to relevant approvals being obtained.
“In addition, Ascot also proposes to provide telephone betting services to customers who wish to register accounts with them. The primary focus of Ascot will be on sports betting on soccer games in the initial stages with the aim of increasing their product service offering to other sports in the future subject to the terms and conditions of the licence.”
Bursa Malaysia officials had pointed out then that because of the conditions of the proposed acquisition, Berjaya Corporation’s filing was accurate, but Husam said the situation had changed.
If the company and its directors, including Tan, had misled the exchange, they would have been subject to sections 177 and 369 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007, the PAS man said.
Section 177 states: “A person shall not make a statement, or disseminate information, that is false or misleading in a material particular and is likely to induce the sale or purchase of securities by other persons or is likely to have the effect of raising, lowering, maintaining or stabilising the market price of securities if, when he makes the statement or disseminates the information — (a) he does not care whether the statement or information is true or false; or (b) he knows or ought reasonably to have known that the statement or information is false or misleading in a material particular.”
