SINGAPORE (Mar 18): The chief operating officer (CEO) and executive director of YuuZoo Networks Group, formerly known as YuuZoo Corporation, resigned effective today.
Known only as Mohandas, the 43-year-old was said to have tendered his resignation on Mar 5, his reason being: “Company unable to continue Singapore operations due to continuing share trading suspension”.
According to Yuuzoo’s announcement on Sunday, Mohandas will continue to serve as a non-executive member of the board.
There was no mention of who would succeed Mohandas’ role, although the company separately announced the appointment of Su Chun Keat as its new lead independent director (ID) and audit committee chairman.
YuuZoo later announced on Monday that it had been "forced" to close all of its subsidiaries in Singapore, as well as to terminate the employment agreements of all of its Singapore-based companies -- a decision which the company claims is a "direct consequence of what happened soon one year ago" as it is now unable to pay local salaries, including that of Mohandas, who "as a result was forced to resign".
The company is referring to the suspension in the trading of its shares, which took effect in March 19 last year after investigations were launched by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) into Thomas Zilliacus, Yuuzoo’s then-chairman, following notices of compliance issued by the SGX.
The investigation has led to IRAS's seizure of cash funds held in the Singapore account of YuuZoo.
In its press release on Monday, YuuZoo says the IRAS has admitted that [the company did not owe IRAS any taxes, and that this admission came "some months after" the seizure of its Singapore cash funds.
While IRAS eventually returned the money by issuing a cheque, YuuZoo says its bank account was closed by a Singapore bank, and "refused to open a new account" for the company. As a result, the company remains unable to access any of the money seized and eventually, returned by the IRAS -- presumably because the cheque cannot be banked.
Meanwhile, YuuZoo emphasises that the CAD investigation, which is still ongoing, has not revealed any wrongdoing to date.
"This is expected, as the company since the beginning of the investigation has shown it has not committed any breach of the rules SGX asked CAD to investigate," comments YuuZoo on the matter.
In response to Su's appointment, Mak Yuen Teen, corporate governance advocate and associate professor of accounting at NUS, tweeted, "Just when you thought we can't get any lower, YuuZoo plumbs new depth. This new ID was lead partner for YuuZoo audit for FY2017. RT has been removed as auditor now."
In its annual general meeting last Oct, 97.87% of YuuZoo shareholders had voted against the reappointment of RT LLP as auditors.
See: CAD raids YuuZoo's office; passport of chairman Zilliacus seized
Zilliacus gave his resignation in the same month.
Other senior members of YuuZoo who have quit over the past year include YuuZoo’s chief financial officer Kevin Wang, who also resigned in April 2018 citing “family emergency” as the reason for his departure.
Shares in YuuZoo have been suspended from trading since Mar 19 last year.
