SEA Gamer Mall's executives resign, agree to extradition

Wong has resigned and will no longer be involved with SEA Gamer Mall. — STANLEY CHAN/SEA Game Mall

PETALING JAYA: The two executives of Perak-based SEA Gamer Mall accused of hacking by the United States have resigned from the company and agreed to be extradited to face charges.

Wong Ong Hua, 46, and Ling Yang Ching, 32, voluntarily resigned as CEO and chief product officer, respectively, according to a statement issued by the company.

They will no longer be involved with the running of the company, and Tommy Chieng, who was the chief operating officer, has been named CEO.

He will also be made a member of SEA Gamer Mall’s board of directors.

Chieng said the two executives maintained their innocence and are committed to fully cooperating with the authorities.

“They have faith in the US justice system. They have decided on their own not to fight the request for extradition and are determined to go to the US willingly to clear their names and to protect the interest of the company and well-being of its 175 employees, ” he said in the statement.

SEA Gamer Mall claimed it has improved the mandatory verification protocol for all of its suppliers and distributors to ensure that the products it markets are legitimate.

“No single employee of SEA Gamer Mall will have absolute control in deciding which suppliers or distributors to work with,” he added.

Last week, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Wong and Ling with 23 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, money laundering, violations of the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act), and falsely registering domain names.

They were alleged to have been involved with five other Chinese nationals who were part of a hacking group known as APT41.

“The indictment alleged that Wong and Ling conducted the affairs of SEA Gamer Mall through a pattern of racketeering activity involving computer intrusion offences targeting the video game industry in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore and South Korea,” the DoJ said in a statement.