SERBA Dinamik Holdings Bhd did not lobby Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob during his Dubai visit in March to solve the oil and gas company’s legal troubles with market regulators, said its CEO Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah. 

Karim said it is true that he had been at the Malaysia Pavilion @ Expo 2020 Dubai when Ismail visited the global trade showcase, but said he had not spoken to the prime minister about his company’s legal issues with the Securities Commission (SC).

“In actual fact, I had no opportunity at all to be alone with him,” Karim told The Malaysian Insight.

He said he was at the expo as Serba Dinamik was the premier sponsor of the Malaysia Pavilion.

He was responding to reports that he had spoken to the prime minister at the expo, seeking his help to sort out the company’s legal mess.

“Not true at all. I was there as my company was the sponsor of the Malaysia Pavilion.

“When the prime minister visited the Malaysia Pavilion on March 30, I was invited by the people managing the pavilion to be there, and we were the premier sponsors.

“We paid RM5 million to sponsor the Malaysia Pavilion, and of course we would want to be there when the prime minister visits it.

“However I did not speak to the prime minister at all… maybe we just exchanged some pleasantries, 10 words at most. After that, he went to visit the pavilion while I stayed behind.

“After that, I spoke to some ministers who are known to me. 

“So the story that I had lobbied the prime minister to intervene to help Serba Dinamik is a total lie, created by people out to cause more trouble for us,” he said.

Serba Dinamik has been in the news after Karim and three senior executives of the company were charged with submitting a false statement to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in relation to the revenue figure of RM6.014 billion contained in the company’s consolidated results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2020.

However last month, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) accepted letters of representation on the matter from the four, following which the SC on April 13 compounded the company and its four top executives RM16 million in all.

It has been reported that the decision to compound the company and its directors was done despite objections from the SC and Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.

The four individuals were Karim, executive director Syed Nazim Syed Faisal who was chief financial officer (CFO) from June 2016 until mid-2020, its current group CFO Azhan Azmi, and vice-president of accounts and finance Muhammad Hafiz Othman.

Hafiz was compounded an additional RM1 million for falsifying the accounting records of Serba Dinamik’s subsidiary.

The company and its directors had paid the full compound to the SC on May 9.

Several news reports recently had questioned the decision to replace the charges with the compound, alluding to political intervention, including claims that Karim had met Ismail in Dubai during the expo for that purpose. – May 10, 2022.