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https://www.straitstimes.com/business/former-ipp-director-goh-jin-hian-liable-for-us146m-losses-suffered-by-company-high-court SINGAPORE - The High Court has found Goh Jin Hian, a former director of insolvent marine fuel supplier Inter-Pacific Petroleum (IPP), liable for breach of director’s duties, statutory duties and losses suffered by the firm amounting to US$146 million (S$196 million) plus interest. The liquidators of IPP had sued Goh to recover US$156 million in losses, accusing him of “sleepwalking through his time as a director” and failing to discover and stop drawdowns in trade financing between June 2019 and July 2019 to fund alleged non-existent or sham transactions. The 55-year-old served as a director of IPP from June 28, 2011, to Aug 20, 2019. According to the liquidators, the trade financing came from IPP’s two largest creditors – Malayan Banking (Maybank) and the Singapore branch of Societe Generale (SocGen). It consisted of US$146 million drawn down for cargo trading operations, and US$10.5 million drawn from SocGen’s facility for IPP’s bunkering operations allegedly when IPP was balance-sheet insolvent. High Court Justice Aedit Abdullah, in brief remarks issued on Jan 24, detailed the responsibilities of a company director. He noted that while a director is not an internal auditor checking every singular detail, the obligation is to monitor the affairs of the corporation. “This entails, among others, at least broad level supervision of the activities of the officers of the corporation, for the protection of the company, shareholders and creditors,” the judge said. He found that Goh, the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong, had “breached the fiduciary duty owed to the company to take into account the interests of the creditors”. “It is not necessary for the company to be actually insolvent; the duty arises when the company is in parlous state. “I do find that the company was in difficulties at the least by June 2019, as indicated by it being balance-sheet insolvent then, and that it was in financial difficulties,” he said. But the judge said the claim for the loss of US$10.5 million “has not been made out” as IPP has “not sufficiently shown how this claim arose out of the breach in question”. In response to The Straits Times’ questions, Goh said: “I am considering an appeal against the judgment and will discuss this with my lawyers.” According to Goh’s opening statement, IPP’s cargo trades and its books and records were directly managed out of its Hong Kong office by Ms Zoe Cheung, a former director and 85 per cent shareholder, and former chief financial officer Wallace To. “If Dr Goh (was suspicious about) IPP’s finances, and was inclined to investigate, he would require Zoe and Wallace’s cooperation,” it said. The judge found that the defendant played an active role in the management of the company, adding that the evidence did not show he reduced his role to a purely non-executive one after July 2015. “The defendant in his specific circumstances owed the duty to be fully apprised of the affairs of the company, especially those relating to its profitability or otherwise. “That thus entailed a need for him to be aware of and to monitor all the activities, including the cargo trading business.” Justice Abdullah said Goh showed a lack of knowledge of IPP’s cargo trading business, which was a significant portion of the company’s activity. “What was adduced by the plaintiff did sufficiently make out ignorance,” the judge said. During the High Court trial in April 2023, Senior Counsel Lok Vi Ming, who represents Deloitte & Touche, IPP’s judicial managers turned liquidators, questioned why Goh failed to inquire about and investigate a large amount of receivables – US$132 million – allegedly owed to IPP by Mercuria Energy Trading. Had he done so, he would have learnt that the invoices IPP issued to Mercuria from September 2017 to February/March 2018 were for bogus transactions, and he would have prevented IPP from drawing down on the trade financing with SocGen and Maybank in June 2019 and July 2019. The liquidators also alleged that Goh missed another opportunity to investigate IPP’s affairs in June 2019, when its bunker operator craft licence was suspended after the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore detected operational irregularities during an inspection. They said that while Goh told the authority that IPP was “under tremendous financial strain”, he did so “without bothering to check IPP’s financial position”. This is because if he had done so, he would have “discovered that there were receivables amounting to about US$964.9 million as of June 2019”. And if he had checked on the validity and accuracy of these receivables, “the sham transactions would have been exposed”, the liquidators argued. The judge found that due to Goh’s failure to act on several red flags that had emerged around Feb 7, 2018, “the full extent of the losses claimed by IPP should be allowed”. “Loss was caused to the plaintiff through the transactions and drawdowns which should not have been carried out and would not have been had the defendant performed his duties,” the judge ruled. On Goh’s defence relating to the adequacy of information provided within IPP, Justice Abdullah found the information insufficient to answer the queries “that should have been pursued by the defendant as a director, given both the magnitude and the circumstances of these financial issues”. “An honest and reasonably diligent director would have persisted and probed further,” he noted, adding that on the balance of probabilities, the fraud would have been discovered had Goh inquired. “In particular, once (Goh) appreciated the large amount supposedly owed to (IPP) by Mercuria, he would have uncovered things that would have triggered... if not an immediate call to the authorities, at least one soon after, staunching any loss to the company. “This was, as noted by the plaintiff, something that he discovered fairly promptly in reality when he eventually realised that there was cargo trading being undertaken,” the judge noted. Goh held 36 concurrent directorships between 2017 and August 2019. In 2020, he stepped down as non-independent, non-executive chairman of healthcare and energy firm New Silkroutes Group and resigned as independent director of cord-blood banking firm Cordlife Group. In September 2023, Goh and three other men were handed a total of 132 charges related to false trading offences in the State Courts. Goh himself faced 39 charges under the Securities and Futures Act over allegations including manipulating the share price of New Silkroutes over various periods in 2018.

JUST IN: HardwareZone Forum hit by security breach, 685,000 registered user profiles affected, police report lodged Here is the statement from SPH Magazines, which owns the HardwareZone Forum site, in full: "Arising from a suspicious posting on HardwareZone (HWZ) Forum website on 18 February, an investigation was immediately launched to ascertain whether a security breach on the HardwareZone (HWZ) Forum site occurred. The investigation found that: A Senior Moderator’s account had been compromised by an unidentified hacker and used to view approximately 685,000 registered user profiles since September 2017. The hacker used the compromised credentials to impersonate the Senior Moderator to retrieve user profile data which comprised name, email address and user ID, and possible optional data fields. The HWZ database does not contain NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and addresses as these were purged in line with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) Guidelines in July 2015. As a matter of precaution, forum users were advised to change their forum account password. SPH Magazines, which owns the HWZ site, has also engaged security consultants to conduct a thorough review of the system. A police report has been lodged and PDPC has been informed. SPH Magazines and HWZ sincerely apologise to HWZ users for this breach of security. We remain committed to protecting all personal data shared with us." http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/st-now-news-as-it-happens-feb-20-2018 MCF got tio bo? Also under SPH, right?

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/31/msia-sees-biggest-mobile-data-breach-over-46-million-subscribed-numbers-at-risk-from-scam-attacks-an/ M’sia sees biggest mobile data breach Tuesday, 31 Oct 2017 By Royce Tan and Sharmila Nair PETALING JAYA: The personal details of some 46.2 million mobile number subscribers in Malaysia are at stake in what is believed to be one of the largest data breaches ever seen in the country. From home addresses and MyKad numbers to SIM card information, the private details of almost the entire population may have fallen into the wrong hands. Malaysia’s population is only around 32 million, but many have several mobile numbers. The list is also believed to include inactive numbers and temporary ones bought by visiting foreigners. With this leak, Malaysians may be vulnerable to social engineering attacks and in a worst-case scenario, phones may be cloned. It is also said that 81,309 records from the Malaysian Medical Council, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and Malaysian Dental Association were also leaked. The leak of the mobile data was reported earlier this month on online forum and news site lowyat.net, which reported that it was thought to originate from a massive data breach in 2014. Yesterday, the site “confirmed” that 46.2 million mobile numbers were leaked online. Lowyat.net founder Vijandren Ramadass told The Star that all information it received on the matter was handed over to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Asked what sort of action would be needed, he said: “Telcos need to admit that this breach actually happened and should inform all their customers what should be done.” It is believed that the MCMC and police are collaborating on the investigation. Network and security strategist Gavin Chow said the most common social engineering attack examples were phone and messaging scams. “Scammers pretend to be someone calling or texting from the telco since they can prove they have the target’s personal details,” said Chow, who is with cybersecurity and malware protection company Fortinet. He added that the scammers would then try to trick the victim in various ways. These include transferring funds into their accounts and installing “telco applications” containing malware or spyware, which will be used to exploit the target in future. “The devices would likely not be hacked directly, but anyone with the data dump information and a little creativity may convince unsuspecting victims to install malware on their devices. “Users need to be alert when receiving calls and messages from strangers. Do not get tricked into sharing more personal details, transferring funds or installing apps,” he said. Technology strategist Dinesh Nair said there was not much that consumers could do, but they should change their SIM card, for starters. “Your name, address, phone number, the IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) and the IMEI (international Mobile Equipment Identity), which are tied to your device are all out there. “I’m sure my data is there as well. People with really good technical skills will be able to clone someone’s phone and that’s the worst-case scenario,” he said. Dinesh added that while no one knew where the breach occurred, the fact that the details were out there pointed to a leak of some sort. “How it happened, we can’t tell but with so much released from different telcos at the same time, it must come from a single source,” he added. Bar Council cyber law and information technology committee co-chairman Foong Cheng Leong said assuming that the leak was after the enforcement of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, there might have been a breach of the Act’s Security Principle by the data users. “The Security Principle requires data users to process personal data securely, but there is not much customers can do other than file a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Commissioner,” he said. Digi said in a statement that it prioritised the privacy of its customer data. “The authorities are looking into the matter and we’ll continue to support them,” the statement read. Celcom Axiata Bhd said it was “collaborating closely with the authorities to assist in the investigation”, a sentiment echoed by Maxis Bhd, which also said it “fully supports the investigation”. Representatives from U Mobile declined to speak about the leak, while representatives of TuneTalk could not be contacted for comments at press time. MMA president Dr Ravindran R. Naidu said a police report was lodged more than a week ago when news of the leak surfaced. “Of course, no system is unhackable. Even the US Department of Defence has been hacked. “However, we have been in the process of upgrading our IT system for the last year or so and the new servers will be more secure. “We will also be upgrading our operational security measures and introducing a new SOP for our staff to minimise the risk of a repeat of this episode,” he said. Related story: Data breaches nothing new, says expert

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Monday morning arrested a 33-year-old Malaysian man who attempted to drive out of the Woodlands Checkpoint while undergoing checks. This happened after he was unable to produce his travel document at the arrival car counter. The alarm was activated and the arrival car zone was locked down immediately. This is the fourth such incident at the Woodlands Checkpoint this year. ICA said in a statement that it is currently investigating the incident. Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/m-sian-arrested-over/1078668.html

must keep the momentum going [laugh]

Criminal breach of trustCriminal breach of trust

Breach under that is..first time in 6 mth trading close below 100 bucks.. let's see whether the cartels will act blur onot..