Ex-China Sky director suing SGX to overturn reprimand

The fight between China Sky Chemical Fibre Co. Ltd. and the SGX (Singapore Exchange) gets more and more interesting.

From the Business Times (Singapore) by Lynette Khoo, published Feb 27, 2012:

A former China Sky independent director (ID) has dismissed an apparent Singapore Exchange (SGX) offer to settle his grievance out of court, calling it an affront to common sense.

Yeap Wai Kong, who has applied to the courts to overturn a public reprimand issued against him by SGX, said yesterday that he 'shall continue to seek redress against the Singapore Exchange'.

The High Court will hear his judicial review application for a quashing order on SGX's public reprimand against him on March 26.

Mr Yeap issued a press release yesterday in response to SGX's offer to review its reprimand if he can provide new information to show why he should not have been reprimanded.

This statement from SGX on Feb 22 essentially provides an avenue for Mr Yeap to address his issue with SGX without going through the courts.

'The 22 February announcement seems to suggest that I should bear the onus of substantiating why I ought not to be publicly reprimanded after SGX has already publicly reprimanded me without giving me an opportunity to be heard. Common sense is affronted upon the utterance of such a proposition,' Mr Yeap said. 'Even a court would have to give an accused an opportunity to be heard and a fair hearing before the court is entitled to sentence the accused.'

In a previous turn of events, China Sky hit back at SGX through the website of .... SGX itself! It used the SGX announcements site to publish a lengthy expose what had happened before, even including the personal notes taken by the CEO at a meeting with SGX officials.

Although China Sky seems to outwit the SGX for the time being, the story will probably not end well for its shareholders. The independent directors and the CEO of China Sky have resigned, and the share is suspended. Investigations are on-going.