Cordlife probe: Chief financial officer arrested and released on bail
Cordlife has been under scrutiny since it was announced in November 2023 that seven of its storage tanks were exposed to temperatures above acceptable limits, damaging cord blood units belonging to at least 2,150 clients.
Cordlife Chief Financial Officer Thet Hnin Yi was arrested and released on bail, the company announced on Mar 27, 2024. (Photos: Cordlife website and Facebook/Ong Ye Kung)
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27 Mar 2024 01:18PM(Updated: 27 Mar 2024 08:28PM)
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SINGAPORE: Cordlife's Chief Financial Officer Thet Hnin Yi has been arrested amid investigations into the company’s mishandling of cord blood units.
The company announced this in a bourse filing on Wednesday (Mar 27), saying she has been released on bail after attending another interview with the police's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
“The company understands from her that the offence for which she is arrested and released on bail, is likewise in connection with potential breaches of the disclosure obligations of the company in relation to the irregular temperatures of a certain cryogenic storage tank of the company, which was first disclosed by the company in its announcement dated Nov 30, 2023," Cordlife said.
It was announced in November last year that seven of Cordlife's storage tanks were exposed to temperatures above acceptable limits, damaging cord blood units belonging to at least 2,150 clients. Another 17,000 clients were possibly affected.
Ms Thet is the sixth person to be arrested in connection with the company's mishandling of cord blood units.
Last week, it was announced that five others - including former Group CEO Tan Poh Lan - were arrested. Cordlife said at the time that Ms Thet had been asked to assist with investigations and had not been arrested.
The company said on Wednesday that it would be in its interests for Ms Thet to continue as CFO as she has been with Cordlife for 17 years and is “very familiar" with its financial numbers and information.
She is currently working with external auditors to finalise the accounts for the financial year that ended on Dec 31, 2023.
“Ms Thet is the key person liaising and managing responses to be sent to the regulators and works closely with the company's legal advisers in relation to announcements to be released by the company, and with the company secretary in relation to corporate secretarial matters,” added Cordlife.
She has also 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 (MOH) in relation to its Singapore operations.
Cordlife said it will continue to reassess the suitability of Ms Thet's appointment as CFO, pending the development of the investigations.
Apart from former Group CEO Tan Poh Lan, four Cordlife directors were also arrested and released on bail - acting chairman Ho Choon Hou, independent directors Yeo Hwee Tiong and Titus Jim Cheong Tuck Yan, as well as non-independent non-executive director Chow Wai Leong.
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In addition, four directors who are currently not based in Singapore are required to attend a police interview on Apr 2.
They are former chairman Joseph Wong Wai Leung, who stepped down earlier this year due to "personal family and health reasons", Mr Zhai Lingyun, Ms Chen Xiaoling and Mr Yiu Ming Yiu.
MISHANDLING OF CORD BLOOD UNITS
The mishandling of cord blood units was made public on Nov 30, 2023, when MOH announced that investigations against the private cord blood bank were ongoing.The ministry had received a complaint from a member of the public on Jul 24, 2023, about alleged issues with a storage tank. It later emerged that Cordlife's board knew of the issue months earlier, in February 2023.
The damaged cord blood units were from one tank that belonged to 2,150 customers.
The remaining six tanks were sent for further tests and the final results to determine the viability of mishandled cord blood units were estimated to be ready by end-March, MOH said previously. This is due partly to capacity constraints at a third-party laboratory conducting the tests.
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"Preliminary investigations show that two of the six affected tanks, which stored about 2,300 cord blood units, were unlikely to be adversely affected by the temperature excursions," MOH said in January.
In December 2023, Cordlife said it would accept a six-month suspension given by the ministry.
The company is required to rectify a list of potential non-compliances by May 31. These include ineffective incident reporting frameworks, inadequate training and competence of staff, and the inappropriate storage of cord blood units, among others.
Its cellular therapy accreditation has been indefinitely suspended by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, a global non-profit corporation which conducts inspections and accreditation in cellular therapy.
