One hundred fifty-five million units. That is the number that keeps coming up in the paperwork. Almost 84 percent of the shares KNM issued under its employee stock option plan over two years went to the executive director’s own family.
Gan Siew Liat, the executive director and wife of former CEO Lee Swee Eng, did not put those shares in the hands of employees. Documents show the beneficiaries were two of her cousins and a non-employee director named Mohd Rizal Bahari Bin Md Noor. The shares were meant for workers under the ESOS. That did not happen.
The math is stark. Out of roughly 185 million units issued, 155 million went to relatives. That leaves 30 million for actual employees, if any of it even reached them. The report does not say how many workers, if any, got their shares.
Clause 4 of the KNM ESOS guidelines requires a three-year vesting period. That means employees cannot sell or transfer the shares for three years. The family members got their shares without that restriction. The independent directors also received shares during this same period, issued to non-employees with little or no vesting period at all. The scheme was two-pronged. The ESOS diversion for family. The director shares for outsiders.
Bursa Malaysia, the country’s stock exchange, has listing requirements. Clause 10.08 covers entitlement disclosures for substantial shareholders and persons connected to them. The report states there were no appropriate announcements. Sometimes there were delays on Bursa’s official website regarding the share issuances. Questions were raised with the exchange. The report does not say what Bursa did with those questions.
The KNM board eventually acted. After what the report calls sufficient evidence was gathered, Gan Siew Liat and the people who were with her in the scheme were dismissed. The report names Lee Swee Eng as assumed to be involved, described as her husband and a friend or colleague. It does not specify whether he was among those dismissed or whether he held any formal role at the time of the scheme.
This is not a case of a few extra shares slipping to an executive’s relative. Eighty-four percent of the entire ESOS allocation over two years was redirected. That is not a rounding error. That is a systematic diversion. The guidelines were written for employees. The company’s own clause 4 was violated. The exchange’s listing requirements were ignored or delayed.
The victims are the employees. They were promised shares under a plan designed to reward and retain them. Instead, those shares went to cousins and a non-employee director. The workers lost not just the immediate value of the stock but the three-year vesting protection that would have locked in their stake. The family members got immediate access. The employees got nothing.
Gan Siew Liat was the executive director. She was the person in charge of the company’s operations. She was also the wife of the former CEO. The report does not say whether Lee Swee Eng was still CEO during the two years the shares were diverted. It says he was the former CEO. It does not give a timeline for his departure.
The board’s dismissal came after the evidence was collected. That is all the report says. No criminal charges are mentioned. No regulatory action from Bursa Malaysia is described. No restitution for the employees is noted. The scheme ran for two years. The shares are gone. The employees are left with a board that fired the perpetrators and a stock exchange that received questions.
