KUALA LUMPUR: The Securities Commission (SC) will examine graft allegations involving AirAsia Group Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd and European aircraft manufacturer Airbus SE.
Chairman Datuk Syed Zaid Albar said the SC would review all available evidence to determine if there was any breach of securities laws as the low-cost carriers were listed on Bursa Malaysia.
“Under s317A of the Capital Markets & Services Act 2007 (CMSA), a director of a public listed company (PLC) who does anything with the intention of causing wrongful loss to the PLC or its related corporation commits an offence which is punishable with imprisonment and fine,” he said in a statement today.
The SC statement followed the Airbus’ bribery cases to allegedly secure contracts to supply aircraft to the two low cost carriers.
According to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) document, Airbus had paid US$50 million and offered US$55 million more to sponsor a sports team linked to two unnamed executives from the airlines.
The document read AirAsia and AAX ordered 406 aircraft from Airbus between October 2005 and November 2014.
This included 180 aircraft secured during the indictment period by way of improper payment made by Airbus and the offer of a further improper payment.
AirAsia had said it was neither involved in any way whatsoever with the SFO’s investigation of Airbus nor given any opportunity to provide any information or clarification to the SFO.
“The entering into of each aircraft purchase agreement was never made by any single individual decision, but instead arrived at through careful evaluation, deliberation and the collective decision of the board members after taking into account technical specifications, aircraft flight performance and operating economics,” AirAsia said in a statement yesterday.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday announced it would investigate the allegations implicating two executives of the airlines.
MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya confirmed that the graft-buster was in touch with authorities in the United Kingdom, and was already probing the corruption allegations.