MALAYSIA
Genneva ex-bosses slapped with 923 charges on illegal gold trading involving RM5.5 billion
Six former senior officials of gold trading company Genneva (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd were slapped with 913 money-laundering and 10 illegal deposit-taking charges involving RM5.5 billion at the Jalan Duta Sessions Court today.
Four of them, former directors Datuk Philip Lim Jit Meng and Datuk Tan Liang Keat, general manager Lim Kah Heng and advisor Datuk Ng Poh Weng, who charged with both offences, were granted bail of RM1.1 million each.
Two others, advisors Marcus Yee Yuean Seng and Chin Wai Leong, who faced money-laundering charges, were allowed bail of RM100,000 each.
In a different court, Genneva the company, Tan and Philip Lim, were charged with putting up false advertisements that their business was syariah-compliant. The money-laundering offences were allegedly committed between January 10, 2011 and October 1, 2012.
The six claimed trial to all the charges before Sessions judge Mat Ghani Abdullah. The prosecution was led by Dzulkifli Ahmad who was assisted by Bank Negara Malaysia prosecuting officer Alvin Ong.
Previously, Ng, Yee and Chin faced over 200 charges of money laundering involving more than RM140 million but were acquitted after the court held that the three, who were former directors of another company called Genneva Sdn Bhd, were engaged in a genuine gold trading business. Genneva Sdn Bhd was raided by Bank Negara in July 2009 for allegedly running a dubious gold trading scheme.
In October last year, the Bank Negara also raided Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd and its affiliates.
Bank Negara froze Genneva Malaysia’s accounts, cheques and other assets worth RM99.8 million besides seizing 126kg in gold bullion on suspicion that the company had violated various banking and financial laws which included taking deposits without giving gold in return, money laundering, evading taxes, appointing agents without licence, failing to file statutory documents, and misrepresenting itself as an investment firm and giving false descriptions on its business after several people lodged complaints with the police.
Last December, nine investors sued Genneva Malaysia and four of its directors — named as Tengku Muhaini Sultan Ahmad Shah, Philip Lim Jit Meng, Ahmad Khairuddin Ilias and Tan Lian Keng — to get back over RM2 million in investments.
They claimed the firm had carried out fraud and misrepresented the scheme as compliant with syariah law. – September 27, 2013.
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