KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur High Court has found that NEP Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd's directors and general manager guilty of contempt of court after failing to abide by the inspection order issued by the court.
The directors are Lim Chang Huat, Lim Chee Kon and Chow Chun Pooi, while the general manager is Kong Kian Huat, according to a statement by VS Industry Bhd today.
This is with regard to the originating summons (OS) filed in January 2022 by VS Industry and Datuk Beh Kim Ling for inspection of NEP's accounting record by an auditor approved by the company and Beh.
VS Industry had acquired a 20 per cent-stake in NEP back in 2016 and had entered into a shareholders' agreement with NEP to govern the rights, duties, liabilities and obligations of the shareholders in relation to the management and operation of NEP and its subsidiaries.
However, NEP failed to fulfil its obligations, including failure to hold annual general meetings for its financial year ended 2021 (FY2021) and FY2022, as well as to file its audited accounts for the same periods.
The High Court had in June 2022 granted VS Industry and Beh an inspection order for NEP to, among others, open its accounting record for inspection by the company's auditor and make available all accounting record for its auditor to make copies.
NEP had failed to fully comply with the order.
Consequently, NEP along with its directors and general manager has now been found guilty of contempt of court.
The passing of sentence against them by the High Court will take place on August 24.
NEP is a local company famous for its "Diamond" brand of water filtration system products that is used in households across Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.