Tan Sri Eric Chia Eng Hock or commonly known as Eric Chia is a millionaire in Malaysia ad is a former chairmain of Perwaja Steel. In June 2007, Chia discharge committing criminal breach of trust 13 years ago when embezzling money from the company of Perwaja Rolling Mail and Development Sdn Bhd of RM $76.4 million at 19 February 1994 when was the Managing Director.
In his cases, Perwaja Rolling Mill and Development Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur instructed American Express Bank Limited to transfer and credit 2,890,130,210 yen (RM76.4 million) into Frilsham Enterprise Incorporated's account. Yvonne Lam Yuen Shan, an operations support and control manager of the bank, said she also corrected Frilsham Enterprise's account number from "953601855" to "9530018552". Lam, has agreed that the amount stated was actually credited into another bank account (account number 547003027) of Frilsham Enterprise.
The 2,890,130,210 yen was the specific sum of payment under the technical assistance agreement, minus the bank charges. The original payment amounted to 2,891,580,000 yen. Asked why the money was transferred to the second account instead of the earlier account, Lam said: "We got confirmation from the customer that they would like the amount to be transferred into the second account. We executed the client's request to credit into the account."
Chia is accused of dishonestly authorising payment for the amount to the account of Frilsham Enterprise Incorporated with American Express Bank Ltd, Hongkong, for technical assistance from NKK Corporation, when no such payment was due to the latter. Alternatively, he is charged with dishonestly disposing of the funds by entering into an agreement with NKK Corporation and authorising payment for the amount without the approval of the board of directors or the tender committee of Perwaja Rolling Mill Development Sdn Bhd.
He is alleged to have committed both offences as managing director