KUALA LUMPUR: FashionValet director Aireen Omar has come out swinging in defence of the company and its founders, Datuk Fadzaruddin Shah Anuar and Datin Vivy Yusof.

She denied any form of financial fraud or abuse of power by the married couple while they had managed the company.

Aireen said she was privy to the financial reports and denied that there had been any misappropriation of money, adding that she regarded the losses of millions of ringgit from investments by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Permodalan Nasional Bhd as "natural business occurrences".

Speaking on "Apa Cerita Podcast", she said losses were part of reality for any businesses.

She attributed the losses to the Covid-19 pandemic and "revenge shopping" which took place afterwards.

"All retailers are facing that kind of issue, not just the fashion industry. It was the environment that they were all in, right?

"There is no such thing as scandal or fraud or siphoning of money. Not at all! I mean, I sit on the board and I look at the numbers, and definitely, there's no such thing," she told the podcast's two hosts, Asyraf Khalid and Ishraq Kamarudin.

Aireen said it was natural for businesses to have their ups and downs.

When asked to comment about criticisms of the couple, she said rather than trying to put a company down, when you do not know the facts, critics should learn something to improve themselves.

"Maybe they should have a life… it is a natural thing that happens in any business. There will be ups and downs, right?

"How do you pull up from the down? That's the most important thing. You cannot have your up days all the time.

"Even in AirAsia, we don't have our up days all the time," said Aireen, who is president of Capital A, the parent company for AirAsia.

She also said that people should be less judgemental.

"Maybe they should look at themselves too and see... why are you creating fitnah (slander) for nothing and add sin for yourself?"

Aireen said in business, when something happens, people will learn from it and improve where they need to be more efficient, where they need to be more effective and so forth.

"And I think they are handling it well. I think they are in good shape at this point in time," she added.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered Khazanah Nasional Bhd to conduct an internal audit over its investment in Fashion Valet, which incurred a loss of over RM43 million.

The day before, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) launched an investigation into the RM43.9 million investment loss suffered by Khazanah and PNB.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/11/1129594/aireen-fashionvalet-no-such-thing-financial-fraud