Telecommunication giant Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd has been slapped with a RM49 million suit for allegedly defaming two of its top dealers in Kelantan.

Businessmen Saizo Abdul Ghani and Asmawi Muktar filed the suits at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today claiming Celcom had made libellous statements alleging that they had been involved unethical business conduct involving "airtime transfer".

Naming Celcom and its head of retail sales department Kamsani Ahmad as defendants, the two claimed that the libel statements was made in two letters dated Nov 21, 2005 and Dec 27, 2005 which was subsequently distributed to top managers in the company.

When met outside the court, the two claimed that they had no choice but to take court action as their business was seriously affected after information of the letter was leaked to other dealers and distributers.

They claimed that the allegations of airtime transfer manipulation was a ploy to deny them the grand prize of RM85,000 awarded to top dealers.

"We are one of Celcom's top dealers as we sold more than 10,000 pre-paid starter packs (sold between July and September 2005). Mind you, these accounts are still active. But when they made the allegations, Celcom not only tarnish our reputation but also deny our business ability. We are merely defending ourselves," they said.

Undesired business conduct

In his statement of claim, Saizo who runs Airtime Telecommunication Sdn Bhd in Kota Bharu claimed that the company falsely accused him of practising "undesired business conduct".

He said the letter stated that his company was not announced as winners of "Xtrene Challenge Round II " as they allegedly found 5,905 accounts were not genuine new accounts as required under the contest rules.

It was alleged that these accounts were involved in abusing airtime transfer.

The company had alleged that only 4,176 were genuine accounts and that the figure put Saizo's company in the second place for top dealer for east coast region which came with a prize of only RM22,888.

He said that he was also warned not to continue his "unethical business tactic" and threatened to severe their business ties.

Asmawi, who owns a GM Telecommunication & Trading based in Gua Musang, also made similar remarks.

He said in a letter, Celcom had denied a top dealer spot when it claimed that some 3,309 from the total of 6,295 accounts he had sold were not genuine and were involved in the manipulation of airtime transfer.

The two claimed that the letters contained untrue allegations which insinuated that they conducted unethical business practice, a dishonest and untrustworthy dealers, and had manipulated "airtime transfer" out of greed for business profit.

The duo claimed that they were in fact one of the top pre-paid dealers in Malaysia and have legal and creative methods and tactics to improve sales.

Celcom has two weeks to enter its defence.