EPF refutes allegations by Sarawak Report

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has spoken up against allegations made by Sarawak Report in its blog and Facebook posting on 28 February.

Refuting the statements, EPF stated in a media release on 28 February that it "has never had any dealings nor entered into any agreements of any sort with Limage Holdings SA, Limage Southwest Holdings, the individual known as Matrai nor any parties as stated by the Sarawak Report."

EPF further noted that no transfer of bonds nor funds of any kind to any of the aforementioned companies, parties or individual could have occurred as alleged.

The EPF reinforced that any schemes of these nature would not pass the EPF’s strong and robust governance framework.

It explained that before any investment decisions are made, its governance process requires all proposals to be subject to stringent risk assessment and due diligence by management. All approvals must go through the Management Investment Committee for endorsement before being put up to the Investment Panel for final approval. The Investment Panel comprises industry professionals, senior members of EPF management, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Government.

The chronological order of events known to the EPF are as follows:

• A fake 'Letter of Indemnity' dated 20 August 2015 addressed to Gyorgy Matrai of Limage Holding S.A. alleging an agreement between the EPF and Limage Holdings S.A. was made known to the EPF on 26 October 2015. As this was clearly a falsified document, the EPF lodged a police report on 28 October 2015.
• A 'Letter of Award' titled "Development and Construction of Integrated Medical City Project For EPF" from TripleNiceTales dated 18 May 2015 was made known to the EPF on 24 February 2016. As there were third parties misusing the EPF name and suspicion of fraud involved, the EPF lodged a police report on 26 February 2016 stating that the EPF has no knowledge nor involvement in the transaction referred to in the 'Letter of Award'.
• The involvement of Ladylaw Securities and Nic Manikis was made known to the EPF on 20 January 2017 and a police report was made on 23 January 2017 stating that the EPF has no knowledge nor was involved in any investment transaction with Ladylaw Securities nor Nik Manikis.

Photo / 123RF