KUALA LUMPUR: The Sessions Court here today fixed March 23 to hear a mention of charges against Transmile Group Bhd's former CEO Gan Boon Aun and former executive director Khiudin Mohamed for allegedly abetting the air cargo service provider in making a misleading statement in its quarterly report.

The Sessions Court deputy registrar fixed the new mention date as Sessions Court Judge S M Komathy Suppiah was on leave.

Before the trial starts, Komathy is also expected to give her decision on the defence's preliminary applications to obtain witness statements and other materials which would be unused by Securities Commission (SC) prosecutors in the trial, said lawyers close to the proceedings.

The charges against Gan and Khiudin state that the allegedly misleading statement was made in Transmile's unaudited consolidated results for its fourth quarter of the financial year ended Dec 31, 2006, which was likely to induce the purchase of Transmile securities.

The SC later issued a statement that the misleading statement was related to Transmile's revenue of RM338.473 million in the company's quarterly report. Gan and Khiudin had on July 12, 2007 pleaded not guilty to the charges.

They were alleged to have committed the offence at Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in Bukit Kewangan here between Feb 28, 2006 and Feb 15, 2007.

If convicted of the offence under Section 86(6) of the Securities Industries Act 1983, Gan and Khiudin face up to 10 years' jail or a fine of at least RM1 million or both.

On May 26, 2008, the SC had also preferred an alternative charge against Gan and Khiudin for furnishing a misleading statement to Bursa Securities based on the same financial report.

Earlier on May 5, 2008, the SC withdrew a similar charge against former Transmile chief financial officer Lo Chok Ping, who was brought to court at the same time as Gan and Khiudin. The SC proferred a compound, and Lo subsequently settled RM700,000 for his involvement in the breach.

Meanwhile, the Sessions Court here will in July begin hearing the full trial of former Transmile directors Chin Keem Feung and Shukri Sheikh Abdul Tawab who were charged with "knowingly authorising" a misleading statement to be furnished to Bursa Securities.

The court had initially fixed March 15 for the trial but a lawyer involved in the matter told The Edge Financial Daily that the trial had been postponed to July 1 and 2 as well as July 19 and 21.

The lawyer, who declined to be named, said the postponement came after trial judge Asmadi Hussin was transferred to the Klang Sessions Court to hear the trials of those accused of cheating the Port Klang Authority in the controversial Port Klang Free Zone fiasco.

Chin and Shukri, who were then independent non-executive directors as well as members of Transmile's audit committee, had pleaded not guilty when charged on Nov 14, 2007.

According to the charge, the allegedly misleading information was in relation to Transmile's quarterly report on its unaudited consolidated results for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2006.

The charge, under Section 122B of the Securities Industries Act 1983, carries a maximum penalty of RM3 million, 10-year jail term or both. They were alleged to have committed the offence on Feb 15, 2007 at Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in Bukit Kewangan here.