SINGAPORE - E-commerce firm YuuZoo Corp said in a pre-market exchange filing on Monday (July 17) that it will appoint an independent third party to investigate claims and statements made about the company.

The move, described by YuuZoo as "initiatives to put an end to further speculation and misleading public claims", came in response to six articles published in the Business Times between May 4 and July 11 and claims made in public and privately by its former financial controller.

YuuZoo said it believes the recent decline in its share price can be linked to the inaccurate statements and claims made in the articles. It added that many issues raised there were already addressed by its auditors for its FY2016 results, who gave YuuZoo a clean audit.

"Despite this, the board of the company has, at the suggestion of the company's executive chairman, decided on the following initiatives to put an end to further speculation and misleading public claims," it said.

YuuZoo revealed that among the claims the independent third party will investigate include those filed by former YuuZoo employees against its former financial controller, including two different police reports, one of which was filed for extortion; and claims raised by the former financial controller in an email sent to the Singapore Exchange after he was terminated.

The independent third party will report its findings and recommendations to Anthony Williams, the company's lead independent director and a law firm partner, for follow-up action.

YuuZoo said its executive chairman, Thomas Zilliacus, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, has said he will step down from his executive position for the duration of the independent review to ensure that there can be no claims of executive interference in the process.

YuuZoo shares were trading down 1. per cent at 6.9 Singapore cents as at 10:45am on Monday.