Ipoh: The Court of Appeal has reinstated 84 criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering charges against company director Tan Hoo Eng, overturning a previous High Court decision that had dismissed them. A three-member bench, chaired by Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, unanimously allowed the prosecution’s appeal.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Justice Sequerah, in delivering the judgment, stated that the High Court had made an error by relying on notes from a civil case to dismiss the charges. He pointed out that Section 33 of the Evidence Act 1950 explicitly prohibits the use of civil trial evidence in criminal proceedings, and this particular case did not fit any statutory exceptions.

Justice Sequerah further noted that issues such as bias and unfair investigation cannot be resolved through affidavit evidence alone and must be thoroughly examined during a full trial. He emphasized that since the trial had already commenced, the Judicial Commissioner should have allowed it to proceed rather than dismissing the charges summarily.

The appellate court has now scheduled a mention of Tan’s case at the Ipoh Sessions Court for Oct 27. Tan, aged 68, faces 30 counts of CBT under Section 409 of the Penal Code, along with 54 money laundering charges under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities (AMLA) Act 2001.

The case has a complex procedural history. Initially charged in the Sessions Court between 2015 and 2016, the charges were revised in 2017, with the CBT charges involving RM4.1 million and the AMLA charges totaling RM9.5 million. They were amended again in August 2019. In 2023, Tan successfully applied to have the charges set aside in the High Court, where Judicial Commissioner Moses Susayan ruled that her rights under Articles 5(1) and 8(1) of the Federal Constitution had been breached.

The High Court’s decision to dismiss was based on evidence from a separate civil case, which it concluded showed a violation of Tan’s right to a fair investigation. However, this finding has now been overturned by the Court of Appeal.

The case originates from a dispute between Tan and Lim Keck Eng, joint directors and equal shareholders in Blue Star Moulding Sdn Bhd. At the proceedings, deputy public prosecutors Zander Lim Wai Keong and Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz represented the prosecution, while Tan was represented by counsel Gurbachan Singh.