Malaysia charges oil & gas firm Serba Dinamik, seeks arrest of CEO

KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) - Malaysia's securities regulator said it is seeking the arrest of oil and gas services firm Serba Dinamik Holdings' chief executive, and has charged company officers with submitting what the regulator said was a false statement to the stock exchange.

In a statement on Tuesday (Dec 28), Securities Commission Malaysia said it had secured a warrant seeking a police arrest of Serba chief executive officer and group managing director Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah. The regulator said the CEO is "currently at large".

Serba and the police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters was not able to contact Abdul Karim for comment, nor establish his location.

The regulator said the false statement was in relation to a RM6 billion (S$1.9 billion) revenue figure published by Serba in its quarterly report for the period ended Dec 31, 2020.

The investigation into Serba was launched in May following a report by external auditor KPMG.

The latter had raised concerns about not being able to verify contracts and transactions worth RM3.5 billion with 11 of Serba's customers. KPMG resigned in June after Serba filed a lawsuit against it.

KPMG had said it will vigorously contest any court proceedings, but declined to comment after resigning from the auditor role.

Serba appointed EY Consulting in July as a special independent reviewer after stock exchange Bursa Malaysia issued a directive that the company should review the issues raised by KPMG.

But Serba last month filed a lawsuit against EY Consulting, seeking to block it from releasing any findings on the group.

Bursa Malaysia and EY Consulting did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Serba's shares have been suspended since Dec 15 after it defaulted on a US$222.2 million (S$300.9 million) sukuk or Islamic bond. It said in a bourse filing that the incident may significantly impact the group's financial performance.