Scam Heaven - Influential 'Datuk' behind 1 billion, investment scam exposed

KUALA LUMPUR: Several victims have come forward to expose an investment scam amounting to RM1 billion involving a local businessman with a 'Datuk' title who has been operating his illicit activities for more than 15 years.

One of the victims, Shah Abdul Malek, a cosmetics businessman, said that he had fallen for the scheme which promised him valuable returns for investing money in credit lenders proposed by the Datuk.

He said that the Datuk had many tricks up his sleeve including his persuasive ways and mentioning names of influential parties in order to lure potential investors to invest in the companies.

"He promised to give us investment returns from my RM5 million investment, about five per cent  within six months but later on nothing happened.

"When we pushed him for clarity on our monies, he said that the company is unable to provide the returns and in the end we are left with nothing.

"He even threatened to report us to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for evading taxes from the investments we made.