Investors lose RM1.4 mil to firm ‘based in London’

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of 11 investors who joined a forex-trading scheme between 2014 to 2016 are warning others against the scheme.

The investors, who lodged police reports with the help of the Cheras MCA division last week, said they had collectively put in about RM1.4mil after being recruited by a mutual friend at the beginning of 2015 to join the “capital investment group” said to be based in Britain.

The scheme promised weekly returns of 4%, and a seven-fold return in one year, leading some, such as Ong, to invest RM334,000.

“We went online to look up the investment company, and our ‘upline’ who recruited us said it was based in London, with over 20 years experience in fund management and forex,” said Ong.

“They had an Indonesian representative and some of us flew over to Jakarta to take a look at their trading software,” said Ng, another investor.

He added that the representatives claimed the company would stop trading once investment losses hit 25%.

“Based on all these, we felt it was quite legitimate, and we trusted our upline contact as well,” said Ng, adding that they handed the money to either their upline, or through another company.

Some investors received returns of US$80 to US$100 (RM343 to RM428.7) over a three-month period, but when Ong wanted to take US$7,000 out, the website containing the group’s forex accounts disappeared.

“Later on, we were induced to put in another US$1,250 (RM5,360) in an attempt to recoup the losses by the same contact.

“Since then, we have been waiting for returns, but at this point, I doubt we will ever see any money being returned,” said Ng.

At the press conference, Cheras Wanita MCA chief Heng Sinn Yee said that a search with the Companies Commission revealed that the company was actually a pet store in Sri Petaling that ceased operating in 2015.

The Indonesian Trade Ministry’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency has also frozen the activities of the Indonesian company at the end of 2015.

“Yet somehow, the company managed to solicit another US$1,250 from investors,” said Heng.

Both Ong and Ng said their contact, known as “Chris”, was still recruiting other people for similar schemes.

“This case serves again as a warning against believing anything that promises guaranteed returns,” said Heng.

“Potential investors must really need to do a lot of due diligence before investing,” said Heng.

vincent.tan@thestar.com.my