Datuk Seri held over Ponzi scam

KUALA LUMPUR: Another get-rich-quick scheme syndicate, led by a man with a Datuk Seri title and caused losses of about RM40 million to hundreds of investors, was crippled by police on Tuesday.

Police arrested three people, including the Datuk Seri, in Maran, Pahang and Kota Baru.

The scheme – MGCfx – which was run by MGC Capital Sdn Bhd, had offered investors 10% returns weekly for their investments.

However, it went bust in August 2015, just slightly over a year after it began operations in June 2014, when it failed to make payments to its investors.

Federal police Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said yesterday that since February last year, police had received 114 reports from investors involving losses close to RM40 million.

The victims had registered as investors through the company’s website and deposited their investments into its bank account. The suspects are in police custody under a remand order for investigations over the scam.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in a Twitter message congratulated the CCID over the bust.

Checks on websites linked to the company showed that the scheme had accepted investments as low as RM350 and lured investors with an offer of making their money grow four-fold or RM1,440 in just a year. The scammers also claimed that the scheme was legitimate for Muslims and encouraged them to introduce it to their families and friends.