Kuala Lumpur - Former United States president Bill Clinton has visited Malaysia to deliver his first paid speech since his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, was selected on Monday by President-elect Barack Obama to be Secretary of State.

Mr Clinton spoke here on Friday before nearly 3,000 people at the invitation of Mr Vinod Sekhar, a Malaysian businessman whose foundation paid him US$200,000 (S$305,000), according to several people with knowledge of the fee. The figure is on the lower end of the scale that Mr Clinton usually commands for his speeches.

'You should be proud of this man,' Mr Clinton, who was visiting Malaysia for the first time, told the audience, pointing at Mr Sekhar. The 40-year-old is chief executive of the Petra Group, a privately held rubber technology company.

But several angry investors in Britain and Malaysia disagreed with the former president's glowing assessment of Mr Sekhar, whose company has had a rough few weeks.

'I believe he is using Bill Clinton - this is what he does,' said Mr Abdul Azim Zabidi, a former board member of the Petra Group. He claims Mr Sekhar broke promises to him and still owes him US$100,000. 'He just wants to get new investors.'

Another investor, actor Bruce Willis, recently settled a lawsuit with Petra over the return of US$900,000. The company called it a 'misunderstanding'.

And last week, after a 10-year partnership, a member of the Malaysian royal family - Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja'afar, a prince from the Negeri Sembilan royal household - quit as Petra's chairman, saying he was tired of the many 'surprises' during his time with the company.

Mr Sekhar, who has made contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative, declined to comment. But a spokesman for the Petra Group, Mr Andrew Murray-Watson, said Mr Abdul Azim's assertion that he was still owed money was 'utter rubbish', and that the Clinton event was held as a memorial for Mr Sekhar's late scientist father.

'The idea that Vinod organised this event purely for public relations purposes is frankly ludicrous, and insulting to the memory of his father,' Mr Murray-Watson said.

Officials with the Obama transition team said they did not vet Mr Sekhar's background before Mr Clinton's speech. The speech was one of the last he will deliver without being reviewed by a State Department ethics panel, a requirement he has agreed to follow if his wife is confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State.

Mr Murray-Watson acknowledged that the company had had a difficult past few weeks, but said its future is bright. He pointed to 'a recently signed, ground-breaking deal with Timberland' to make shoe soles out of recycled materials manufactured by the company.

NYT