BERJAYA Corporation Bhd (BCorp) said it has filed police reports regarding inaccurate news reports pertaining to its founder Vincent Tan’s alleged involvement in casino talks related to Forest City, Johor.

In a statement today, BCorp said the reports are aimed at prompting police investigations into the matter, particularly to identify the purported “unnamed source” who spread false statements.

It also said that the articles were published with malicious intent aimed at causing political upheaval.

“We trust the police will do the necessary to investigate this matter, and respectfully encourage any publication to be done more tactfully before making any allegations without prior verification,” it added.

BCorp’s legal representative filed police reports on April 26, 2024.

The reports were filed against Bloomberg News and The Edge Singapore over their reports on April 25.

“We strongly believe that the publications and/or republications of the articles, which contained completely false and untrue statements, were made with malicious intent, aimed to cause political upheaval, undermine the public trust and distort the public’s perception on His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim King of Malaysia and the prime minister of Malaysia,” the company said.

BCorp said the news agencies had not made any attempt whatsoever to verify or confirm the veracity and accuracy of the statements in the articles before publishing the same, especially when the statements were attributed to an “unnamed source”.

This is BCorp’s second press statement on the matter.

It once again reiterated an earlier statement that Tan has not participated in any such discussions with any reported parties, including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Genting Group’s Lim Kok Thay as well as any representatives of His Majesty, or Sultan Ibrahim himself, and refuted all inaccurate claims presented in the articles.

Bloomberg, in its report, stated that Tan and Lim were in early discussions with the government on opening a casino in Forest City, and that they had met Anwar.

The report had quoted unnamed sources.

Anwar, however, immediately called the report “a lie”.

Genting Malaysia has also denied the involvement of the company and Lim in any such discussions or meetings, saying that the claims made are untrue.

In a related development, political activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegubard, is expected to be charged over his comments over the casino report.

He is expected to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur sessions court this morning under Section 500 of the Penal Code with defamation and under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948.

Badrul was arrested late Saturday and held on remand since then. – April 29, 2024.