KOTA KINABALU: The past two years have been an absolute nightmare for businessman Yong Chee Kong after he was accused of being a scammer for offering to donate vaccine doses to the government in 2021.
However, this all ended well when he received a letter from the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) in May this year stating that after all investigations were made, it was found that he was wrongly implicated of being involved in a scam.
His lawyer Wong Su Lynn said that ever since news of the alleged "scam" broke, Yong had been getting calls non stop from his investors and clients as well as banks about the matter.
She said banks had been denying or making it very difficult for Yong to conduct his business operations as they did not trust his credibility after reading news of him.
"His life turned topsy-turvy and there were just headaches and problems that followed suit," said Wong during a press conference to clear Yong’s image on Tuesday (Aug 1).
He just wants this confusion to be made clear and his image restored, she said.
She said Yong did not want this matter to be politicised in any way as this is a sensitive time, with state elections held in several states in the peninsula.
Asked if this whole scandal would deter Yong from making future donations, Wong said definitely not.
"He will continue to donate to other rightful causes," she said.
Earlier, she said based on the AGC’s letter to them, it stated that the investigations based on his police report revealed that the company associated with Yong - Xintai Development Enterprise did not exist.
It also acknowledged that Xintai Development Enterprise was wrongly stated by Yong when preparing his proposal to donate the vaccines, said Wong.
"The correct name of my client’s company is actually Xintai Enterprise Development," she said.
She said the typographical error was inadvertently made by Yong and as a result, he was wrongly implicated as being involved in a scam.
The AGC also stated that it has classified the police report against Yong as 'No Further Action' as there were no offences made, Wong said.
This whole problem started in May 2021 when Yong had offered to donate two million doses of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to Penang.
A similar offer was made to the Sabah government prior to the Penang offer but it was turned down because the Sinovac had yet to be approved at that time.
It did not help that a letter purportedly prepared by Yong’s company had typo errors on the name of his Hong Kong-based company.
Not long after, he had come out to say that the name of the Hong Kong based company Xintai Enterprise Development Ltd was wrongly named in the letter, which called it Xintai Development Enterprise Ltd.
