By Selina Lum

NEARLY three years after former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) board member Matilda Chua was hauled to court on criminal charges, her case has finally come to a close.

Yesterday, Chua, 39, was sentenced to a total fine of $20,000 on two charges of falsifying the books of her call centre company, Global Net Relations (GNR).

In 2007, a district court had fined her $10,000 on one count and cleared her of the other. But the acquittal was overturned by the High Court yesterday on appeal by the prosecution.

Undone by NKF charity scandal

THE charges faced by Matilda Chua, a former director of the National Kidney Foundation, are not linked to the mismanagement scandal at the charity. However, the offences are said to have surfaced when the investigators started looking into her role at the charity.

Chua began her career at NKF as a public relations executive in May 1991, climbing to the position of senior associate director within 10 years. She resigned from her post in July 2000 with a severance package of $150,000. She was appointed as a director in August 2002 and had a seat on the NKF executive committee.

The High Court decision yesterday ends all the criminal cases against the members of the former NKF board.

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