KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur High Court on 2 November has released the grounds of judgement where it has found that Hairul Hisham Mohd Soradi and Luqman Zulhusni Ismael, former employees of Musharaka Venture Management Sdn Bhd (MVM) had committed breach of trust, breach of fiduciary and fidelity duties against their former employer, MVM.
The High Court has awarded that Hairul Hisham Mohd Soradi and Luqman Zulhusni Ismael and their company, Quantum Desire Sdn Bhd are liable to pay for damages to MVM to be assessed by the Court for their gross wrong doings.
MVM had earlier sued Hairul Hisham, Luqman and Quantum Desire Sdn Bhd for an amount of RM60million plus other general damages to recover the losses which MVM legally deserved.
According to the High Court’s grounds of judgement, both Hairul Hisham and Luqman worked for MVM for a period of time and whilst working they were entrusted to carry out a proposed joint venture between MVM with Warisan Harta Sabah (WHS, now known as Qhazanah Sabah Bhd) since 2014.
The Court found that both Hairul Hisham and Luqman had acted in bad faith (mala fide) and had hijacked the proposed joint venture project for themselves with the assistance Joehary Ismail from WHS for their own mutual gains without the knowledge of their employers.
In 2018 whilst under the employment of MVM, they secretly and outside the knowledge of MVM formed the joint venture for themselves under Quantum Desire Sdn. Bhd. with Warisan Harta Sabah SB(Qhazanah Sabah Bhd.)
They named their joint venture company, Warisan Quantum Management Sdn Bhd (now known as Qhazanah Quantum Management Sdn. Bhd.)
When MVM found out what Hairul Hisham and Luqman did, MVM then lodged a number of police reports against them for various gross wrongdoings and decided to pursue a case against them and demanded to be compensated by them for the breaches of fiduciary and fidelity duties.
MVM had pursued this case for almost four years before the High Court Judge, the Honorable Justice Dato Ahmad Bache ruled in favour of MVM.
The High Court Judge meant the case as a lesson to employees not to betray the trust of employers for their own financial benefits. The Court also found both Hairul Hisham and Luqman as dishonest employees whose actions should not be condoned.
The defendants’ counter claims against MVM were also without merit and hence was dismissed with cost of RM45,000.
The defendants have filed their Notice of Appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the High Court.
