Gold controversy: Man pleads not guilty to “misusing” gold residue for own use

KOTA KINABALU: An assistant manager for a Sabah gold mining company has been slapped with four counts of “misusing” the company’s gold concentrate residues four years ago.

Brando Phan Tze Chiang, 49, pleaded not guilty to the separate charges read before two different Tawau Magistrate’s – Magistrate Dayang Aidaku Amira Aminuddin and Magistrate Don Stiwin Malanjum – at the Kota Kinabalu courts on Tuesday (April 2).

All four charges were read separately. The accused, at the time, was a gold room supervisor at Wullerdorf Resources Sdn Bhd (WRSB) and was alleged to have fraudulently taken the remaining gold concentrate residue belonging to WRSB for his own use.

He was accused of committing the offences in October 2020, October 2021, May 2022 and December 2022 at the Bukit Mantri gold mine in Balung in the Tawau district.

The four charges were framed under Section 403 of the Penal Code for dishonest misappropriation of property.

He faces imprisonment of up to five years, a fine and whipping if found guilty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Syahnidzam Ahmad led the prosecution while lawyer Chin Teck Ming and Vivian Thien represented Phan.

Phan was offered a bail of RM10,000 for each charge with RM15,000 deposited.

The next mention of the case will be on May 14.

On March 28, the company’s former geologist Edwin James, 36, was fined RM32,000 after he pleaded guilty to four counts of illegally transporting gold concentrate residue for sale to a goldsmith in Raub, Pahang. He paid the fine.

James pleaded guilty to the charges framed under Regulation 6(1)(c) of the Mineral Development (Licensing) Regulations 2016 that were committed at the Inanam Express Bus Station here between 2020 and 2022.

The gold was from Sabah’s controversial gold mine in Tawau, which had been rocked by multiple investigations.

The court was told that James had received at least RM800,000 from the illegal dealings.

In October last year, the gold mine company’s former chief executive officer and a son were charged in Kuala Lumpur with 24 counts each of cheating the Sabah government with regards to their failure to declare 26 gold bars sold, resulting in the state losing RM1.3mil in royalty revenue from the proceeds.