Saying that it views illegal financial schemes very seriously, BNM however, promised to first enforce the law against the perpetrators and promoters of such schemes.
“The wrongdoers will face the full brunt of the law, including laws administered by Bank Negara Malaysia, the Penal Code, the Interest Schemes Act 2016, the Direct Sales and Anti-Pyramid Scheme Act 1993 as well as the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
“Under existing laws, legal action can also be taken against investors participating in illegal schemes for abetment,” the central bank said in a statement over the recent controversy over forex and other investment schemes going bust, amid a backlash from investors who were promised high returns of 20-30%.
BNM said it is setting up an inter-agency initiative, led by the Attorney-General’s Chambers under the National Coordination Committee to Counter Money Laundering.
With such an initiative, the authorities will be able to take joint enforcement action against any cases of financial fraud and scams.
Warning against financial schemes promising unrealistically high returns, BNM advised Malaysians to avoid falling prey to such scams by referring to BNM’s Financial Consumer Alert, which lists companies that are neither authorised nor approved under the relevant laws and regulations administered by the central bank.
“We also provide information on the common features of illegal financial schemes.”
In the meantime, BNM will escalate the matter with all financial institutions in the country to ensure that large sums of funds are monitored and reported back to the central bank.
“Financial institutions and money business service providers have been directed to heighten their vigilance in detecting the accounts which are used by the perpetrators of financial scams.
“They have also been told to further enhance their customer due diligence policies and processes in identifying suspicious transactions and fund flows between bank accounts so as to prevent financial institutions from becoming conduits that facilitate such illegal schemes.”
Recently, a number of ‘money game’ operators and other investment schemes have come under the spotlight after one such company, JJPTR, said that it had lost RM500 million to “hackers” who allegedly siphoned off the funds from the company’s accounts.
The founder of the Penang-based JJPTR, Johnson Lee, then promised to repay all investors their capital, and later claimed to have found foreign investors to cover the customers’ investments.
JJPTR’s money game investment scheme was established in 2015, promising returns as high as 20% a month to members.
According to The Star in a report yesterday, JJPTR is one of three that went bankrupt last monh. The others are Richway Global Venture and CYL.
Now, founder of collapsed JJPTR offers new scheme with 35% returns