Former CEO’s lawsuit against co-founder over betrayal dismissed
Court dismisses lawsuit by ex-chief of Netccentric, parent company of Nuffnang, who claims he was forced to resign
The High Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the former chief executive officer of a social media company who accused his co-founder of betrayal.
Mr Cheo Ming Shen, 35, claimed he had "no choice" but to resign from Netccentric, the parent company of blog advertising network Nuffnang, in January last year amid bad financial results.
Mr Cheo claimed his co-founder, Mr Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam, 34, a Malaysian, had "engineered" his resignation and thus breached an agreement not to interfere with his leadership of the company.
But Mr Cheo's contentions cut no ice with the court.
"The plaintiff jumped without being pushed," said Justice Choo Han Teck in a judgment released last Friday.
The judge found that there was no evidence to support Mr Cheo's claim that Mr Tiah had agreed to let him remain as Netccentric's CEO for three years.
Justice Choo noted that there were three independent directors on the board but they were not called to testify.
One of the influencers represented by Nuffnang, blogger Wendy Cheng, better known as Xiaxue, testified for Mr Cheo.
But the judge found her evidence "largely not relevant to the issues before the court, and therefore, had no impact on the outcome of this case".
Mr Cheo and Mr Tiah started Netccentric in 2006.
Losses mounted after the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in July 2015, and a rift between them grew.
"With two young, ambitious men in a very modern business dealing in public influence... it was only a matter of time before one of them (the defendant) declares that 'one mountain cannot have two tigers' and the other (the plaintiff) promptly saying 'I agree,'" Justice Choo wrote in his judgment.
The judge was referring to an exchange of text messages between the two men in September 2016, in which Mr Tiah offered to step down as chief operating officer.
Not long after Mr Tiah resigned and received a large severance package, the board received a letter from Malaysian tycoon Tony Tiah Thee Kian, an investor in Netccentric who is Mr Tiah's uncle.
The tycoon demanded in the letter that the board replace Mr Cheo as CEO to hold him responsible for the company's "deplorable performance".
In his lawsuit, Mr Cheo said he resigned to save himself the embarrassment of being voted out in a shareholders' meeting.
Mr Tiah, who is represented by Mr Pradeep Pillai and Ms Simren Kaur Sandhu of PRP Law, said there was no proof that a shareholders' meeting was being called.
Separately, Mr Cheo and Netccentric have sued each other.
In June, Mr Cheo won his claim for sums totalling about $250,000 that were recorded in the company's accounts as being owing to him.
The company is claiming more than $100,000 from him, including expenses for personal trips and a monthly "petrol and parking" allowance of $3,000 for 19 months.
The case is pending.
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