PUTRAJAYA (May 7): The Federal Court on Tuesday ruled that it is not intervening with the High Court’s decision in not allowing businessman Ricky Wong Shee Kai to come back to Malaysia’s jurisdiction should he want to participate in civil court proceedings against him and his mother and Wong SK Holdings Sdn Bhd following an action by the Securities Commission Malaysia.

This follows a three-member apex court bench led by Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan dismissing Wong’s leave application to appeal over not allowing his presence in the online proceedings conducted at the High Court.

“The court dismissed Wong’s leave application as the question of whether the trial judge had erred in his decision is a matter that can be challenged by way of appeal at the end of the trial.

“In this regard Wong’s right to appeal is reserved - it is not that the trial judge’s decision is non-appealable but rather it is appealable at the end of the trial and not during the course of it. It would not be appropriate for the Federal Court to interfere with the trial court’s discretion at this juncture. Thus, there is no prejudice towards Wong,” Nalini said.

Nalini who sat with Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohamed Hashim and Datuk Rhodzhariah Bujang in the unanimous decision also directed the trial to commence expeditiously and ordered Wong to pay RM20,000 costs following the dismissal of leave to appeal.

The trial was supposed to commence next year at the High Court.

Wong, who is still at large at an undisclosed location, was at the online proceeding at the High  Court but this was objected by the SC as he refused to come back and face on-going proceedings, be it at the civil and criminal court.

The businessman who was represented by Datuk M David Morais is appealing the court’s decision barring his presence in the civil proceedings where the SC represented by Datuk Lim Chee Wee, Kwan Will Sen and Mohd Hafiz Mohd Yusof had objected to it.

During proceedings Nalini had suggested to Morais to take the matter up on appeal at the end of the proceeding rather than taking it up now, which was agreed by Lim.

The SC had filed the civil suit against Wong, his mother Teh Sew Wan and Wong SK Holdings for allegedly contravening the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007, in using devices, schemes or artifices to defraud Bright Packaging Industry Bhd (BPI) and/or engaging in acts, practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud upon BPI.

They are alleged to have siphoned approximately RM56 million from BPI via a series of corporate exercises between 2013 and 2015, comprising a rights issue, a private placement and two rounds of an employees share option scheme (ESOS).

Wong and Teh are directors of Wong SK Holdings.

The SC in its investigation allegedly also found that the monies from each exercise were transferred from BPI via layers of these nominee companies, which ultimately ended up in either Wong's HSBC account or Alliance Bank account or Wong SK Holdings' AmBank account.

Besides this civil action, the SC had also commenced forfeiture proceedings against Wong, to forfeit a property and shares in BPI where it is said to be more than RM20 million. 

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