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Cordlife’s chief financial officer arrested and out on bail

2024-03-27 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE - Troubled private cord blood bank Cordlife announced on March 27 in a bourse filing the arrest of another one of the company’s senior management, chief financial officer Thet Hnin Yi, for potential breaches of the company’s disclosure obligations in relation to its mishandling of cord blood units.

She attended an interview at the Commercial Affairs Department office, and was arrested in connection with the investigations and released on bail, said Cordlife in the announcement filed at 12.18pm.

Despite the arrest, the company’s nominating committee and board said it would be in the company’s interests for Ms Thet to continue as Cordlife’s CFO, as it believes she can continue to fulfil her duties and will be able to continue to discharge them in an independent and professional manner.

Cordlife gave four reasons why she should continue in her appointment.

The company said Ms Thet has been with Cordlife for approximately 17 years and is very familiar with the company, including its historical and current financial numbers, which will be useful to the board in its decision-making when it comes to ongoing matters facing the firm.

Cordlife said she is currently working with external auditors to finalise the accounts for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2023.

The third reason is that Ms Thet is the key person liaising with and managing responses to be sent to regulators, and works closely with Cordlife’s legal advisers regarding announcements to be released by the company as well as the company’s secretary regarding corporate secretarial matters.

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Cordlife added that she has been instrumental and proactive in assisting the board with the ongoing work undertaken by the company to investigate and address the lapses identified by the Ministry of Health.

“The nominating committee and the board are of the view that her continued presence in the capacity of CFO will be very relevant to the board as she will be able to share her experiences and deep financial knowledge that is very important to the board,” said Cordlife.

It added that its nominating committee and board will continue to consider and reassess the suitability of the continued appointment of Ms Thet as CFO, pending the development of the investigations and in accordance with the requirements of the listing rules of the Singapore Exchange.

Processes at the cord blood banking company have come under the spotlight after the health authorities revealed on Nov 30, 2023, that cryopreserved cord blood units in seven of its 22 storage tanks were exposed to suboptimal storage temperatures.

Around 2,200 cord blood units in one of the affected tanks were damaged and rendered unsuitable for stem cell transplants.

Cord blood samples from the remaining six affected tanks and a dry shipper have been sent to a third-party laboratory to test the viability and potency of the cord blood units.

On March 22, the company announced that its former group chief executive Tan Poh Lan, along with four board members, were arrested and are out on bail.