Family Controversy for Malaysia Dairy Industries
Thio Keng Poon was in court this past Tuesday on charges that he was committing fraud by not provided the court with relevant documents concerning his business dealings. Thio founded and continued to run the family business in Singapore, Malaysia Dairy Industries. He had been the chairmen and managing director of the company when in 2007, he was discovered to have claimed the expense of an airline ticket, twice for the same trip. He is fighting his dismissal from the company he founded, however it is family that has brought charges against him. The lawyer representing the family of Mr. Thio, has questioned him in court, on charges similar to the previous stated charge, stating that there is evidence that he has been padding his expenses for quite sometime, repeatedly being reimbursed for nights in the best hotels in Singapore as well as numerous airline tickets and restaurant charges. When questioned about the charges, Thio stated that he had been traveling with a female friend, and rather than keeping and submitting the receipts from various activities, he estimated the cost to equal that of the airline ticket. It is his claim, that he was actually under-estimating the cost by just resubmitting the ticket, saying that it was far under the cost of the hotel rooms. He was told by the court that he must produce the receipts and invoices, but he claims first–he cannot find them, and secondly that he had already requested that his lawyer present the court with those invoices as evidence. The lawyers for the family contend that he is selectively finding various invoices that reflect the involvement of two people, and submitting those as evidence in his defense. They claim that they were taken from numerous trips and not the one in question.
Thio has been known for his entrepreneurial character over the years. His was driven from the beginning to create and develop health conscious products. It is his philosophy and has become the companies philosophy as well, providing dairy products to most of Southeast Asia for many years, almost twenty. Malaysian Milk has had many years of consumer loyalty, and is the leading provider of many products garnering mass appeal. Quality production and aggressive marketing has secured the company financial security and great market shares. The manufacturing plant is in Petaling Jaya , and the innovations over the years include yogurt drinks, fruit drinks, organic jellies, and milk. The business has been well known and supported for years throughout Asia, and Mr. Thio is now, just desperately trying to hold on to the company that he created.
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