5 Raffles Education directors to be formally arrested, bail set at $30,000 each

(THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Following investigations by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), five directors of Raffles Education Corporation were notified of their formal arrest and bail conditions on Monday (Feb 21).

These investigations are related to disclosures made by the company about a claim by Affin Bank against certain subsidiaries of the company, including two schools in Malaysia, Raffles K12 and Raffles Iskandar.

In a bourse filing on Tuesday, the company shared that several directors had been notified to attend the CAD's offices to effect their formal arrest, and post and release on bail, which is understood to be $30,000 for each director. They are:

- Chew Hua Seng, chairman and chief executive officer;

- Lim How Teck, lead independent non-executive director;

- Joseph He Jun, non-independent non-executive director;

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- Ng Kwan Meng, independent non-executive director; and

- Doris Chung Gim Lian, a director and key management of Raffles K12 and Raffles Iskandar

Under the bail conditions, the directors have to routinely attend to the CAD's office to assist with ongoing investigations.

They may also travel outside of Singapore if they have obtained clearance before doing so.

None of the directors have been charged for any offence, and the arrests do not necessarily signify that there will be any further actions taken or charges in the future, the filing stated.

Each director is fully cooperating with the authorities on investigations and have undertaken to inform the company of these investigations and their subsequent developments, it added.

The directors will continue to serve their roles within the company in the interim, as the nomination committee believes the ongoing investigations will not compromise the ability of the current officers to discharge their duties.

The filing also noted that the operations and day-to-day management of the company are not impacted by the ongoing investigations.

In previous announcements, it was revealed that the authorities are investigating a potential offence under section 203 of the Securities and Futures Act, which covers continuous disclosures. An offence is deemed to have been committed if material information was not disclosed on the exchange to shareholders when it occurred.

Raffles Education and its subsidiaries had been served writs and statements of claim by Affin Bank on May 27, 2021. The company had disclosed these on Jul 29, 2021, "further to discussions" and "at the request" of the Singapore Exchange.

In the latest filing, Raffles Education has reiterated that the writs are "unmeritorious". It also said that Affin Bank had filed notices of discontinuance on Aug 23, 2021 to discontinue the actions under the writs.

Ms Gan Hui Tin, an independent non-executive director who had with the aforementioned five directors attended interviews with the authorities in October 2021, was not mentioned in the latest filing.

It was previously announced that Ms Gan had wanted to retire in June 2021 over disagreements with the board for not disclosing a writ from Affin Bank, but had been requested by chairman Mr Chew to hold back her resignation.

Shares of Raffles Education were trading down 0.1 cent or 1.4 per cent at 7.3 cents, as at 9.14 am on Tuesday, after the announcement.