KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 – The current sole shareholder of Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd – which legally owns the software it used to develop Malaysia’s Covid-19 app MySejahtera – is a company registered and based in Singapore, Entomo Pte Ltd.
A Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) search today shows that Entomo Pte Ltd owns 300,004 shares in Entomo Malaysia, formerly known as KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, that has issued share capital of RM300,004.
SSM’s record on Entomo Malaysia’s shareholder particulars lists Entomo Pte Ltd, the sole shareholder, as “foreign”, with a Singapore-based address.
According to a company search on Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) yesterday, Entomo Pte Ltd has four directors: Malaysian Raveenderen Ramamoothie; Singaporeans Tan Seng Hong and Finian Tan; and Indian national Naveen Pralhad Deshpande.
Raveenderen is also Entomo Pte Ltd chief executive officer, based on the ACRA record. According to Entomo’s website, Finian Tan is chairman, whereas Naveen is co-founder and chief operating officer.
Entomo Pte Ltd has paid-up capital of some SG$10.2 million and about US$26 million.
DreamTeam Incorporation Pte Ltd, registered in Singapore with an address in Singapore as well, is the biggest shareholder in Entomo Pte Ltd with 35,524,848 ordinary shares in Singapore dollars.
Entomo Pte Ltd – which has 28 shareholders in total – lists five Singaporean corporate shareholders, two American corporate shareholders, one Japanese corporate shareholder; as well as eight Japanese individual shareholders, four Singaporean individual shareholders, three Malaysian individual shareholders, three Indian individual shareholders, one American individual shareholder, and one Indonesian individual shareholder.
The National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement on July 1, 2020 that “KPISoft” was founded by two Malaysians – Anuar Rozhan and Raveenderen Ramamoothie – who were also the “biggest shareholders of the company to date” then. NSC also said KPISoft was a local MSC-status company founded in 2010.
However, SSM records show that KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which changed its name to Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd on May 20, 2020, was incorporated on June 21, 2005.
SSM’s record on Entomo Malaysia’s shareholder particulars also shows no change of shareholding since January 31, 2017, when the company registered its document on the date of change in shareholding lodged with SSM.
This indicates that Singaporean company Entomo Pte Ltd has been Entomo Malaysia’s sole shareholder since at least 2017.
The Hansard of a meeting by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on March 8 this year showed confusion over the actual names of KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd and MySJ Sdn Bhd, as Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) officials at the meeting initially referred to the former company as KPISoft Sdn Bhd.
“How can the Cabinet approve this if such information can’t be accurate?” PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said, referring to the Cabinet’s approval last November for direct negotiations with MySJ on MySejahtera.
“Yes, that’s right. Maybe NACSA (National Cyber Security Agency) is the one who brought this paper, or the NSC. They all didn’t do a thorough check, but no matter, we have instructed MOH to check this issue. If it’s found that this really is inaccurate, then Mr Chairman needs to bring this back to the Cabinet,” replied MOF division deputy secretary (government procurement) Rosni Mohd Yusoff.
Share Sale Agreement: Malaysian Government Owns Data Collected Through MySejahtera
According to a share sale agreement on December 31, 2020, between two MySJ shareholders – Revolusi Asia Sdn Bhd and P2 Asset Management Sdn Bhd – which was disclosed in a supporting affidavit by Entomo Malaysia in an ongoing court case, Entomo Malaysia is the owner of “all rights, title and interest, including all intellectual property rights” related to the MySejahtera app.
This excludes the “trademark and data collected through the operation of MySejahtera” that are owned by the Malaysian government.
Through an October 6, 2020 licence agreement disclosed by the affidavit, Entomo Malaysia gave MySejahtera’s intellectual property rights to MySJ and granted MySJ a perpetual licence to use Entomo Malaysia’s “proprietary software” to develop and support the MySejahtera app for RM338.6 million in a deal until end 2025.
The licence agreement states that MySJ only acquires a licence to the KPISoft software specifically for MySejahtera and “does not acquire any other rights or ownership interests.”
These public court documents were filed in a lawsuit that P2 Asset Management initiated last November against Entomo Malaysia, Revolusi Asia, and MySJ over an alleged breach of a share sale agreement between Revolusi Asia and P2 Asset Management.
Malaysians Anuar and Raveenderen are on MySJ’s board of directors.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told the press yesterday that MySejahtera users’ personal data is protected by the government with a non-disclosure agreement, and is not shared with the private sector or a third party.
He also acknowledged that a contract had not been created when KPISoft developed MySejahtera for the Malaysian government for free as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that ended on March 31 last year.
The health minister further said that after his appointment last August, he sought to transfer management of MySejahtera to MOH and to put a contract into place, as KPISoft had been providing the app’s services to the government via the NSC without a legal agreement.
MySejahtera, which has 38 million registered users, contains information on Malaysia’s Covid-19 epidemic, including positive cases, their location, and those under home quarantine, besides users’ personal data that includes their name, IC number, phone number, and check-ins at public premises.
This is the third part of CodeBlue’s investigative series on MySejahtera:
- PAC Report: MySejahtera Developed Without Contract, App’s Ownership Unclear With New Company
- MySJ To Get MySejahtera Intellectual Property, Licensing For RM338.6Mil From App Developer
- More Court Documents Show MySJ Owns MySejahtera Platform, IP Rights
- MySejahtera Scandal Not Unique, France’s Covid-19 App Under Prosecutor Probe
