Don’t tar gold victims with same brush

A 2010 Bank Negara probe on a gold trading company resulted in no charges; instead the group claims they are being victimised in a court action to forfeit gold rightfully belonging to them

PETALING JAYA: A group of “victims” of a gold trading company raided by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in 2010 has questioned the government’s sincerity in clamping down on similar “illegal” schemes.

Speaking to FMT recently, representatives of a group comprising some 100 customers of The Gold Label Sdn Bhd said that it was perplexing that BNM has, until today, failed to even charge a single director of the said company.

Instead, the authorities are seemingly more interested in confiscating some RM1.5 million worth of gold bars (100kg) they claim rightfully belonged to them, said Cynthia Wong, the head of the group.

They are part of an estimated 1,000 customers affected in the case with losses estimated between RM100 million and RM200 million, but the authorities have managed to so far seize less than RM20 million in assets.

On May 7, 2010, BNM raided The Gold Label at its premises in Mid Valley City, following complaints received from the public.

BNM then announced that it had commenced investigations into The Gold Label on suspicion of conducting illegal deposit-taking and money-laundering activities.

The company was reportedly investigated under subsection 25(1) Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA) and sub-section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (AMLATFA).

BNM’s completed investigations then led to a court action in 2011 where the government filed for a civil forfeiture under Section 56(1) of AMLATFA at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. This trial is still ongoing.

Wong’s lawyer, Lee Min Choon, who represents some 60 victims in the case, said that his clients are innocent and are being wrongly victimised in the court action.

“They are innocent here, nobody would willingly risk their life savings just to be part of an illegal scheme.

“BNM and the Attorney-General’s Chambers are trying to establish that these people had colluded and participated in this as a partner,” said Lee, adding that this was a prerequisite to forfeit and confiscate the assets.

“It is one thing to tar the directors of the company as conmen, but is it fair to tar all these victims with the same brush? That’s illogical.”

Hard-earned savings

Another buyer and former consultant from Wong’s group, who wished to remain anonymous, asked: “Why are the directors not charged until today? How is the government protecting us then? You have to prevent them from resurfacing, if they really did anything wrong, right?…”

“Sadly, it does gives me an impression that the authorities are colluding with the directors of these gold trading companies to rip the public off their hard-earned savings,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wong said the government seems only interested in forfeiting the money frozen, in essence helping the government get a share of what gold traders lost.

The DPP takes much trouble to tie each Gold Label customer going to court as a willing rather than unwitting party to the trading process that turned bad.

“Why are the authorities seemingly content at confiscating what rightfully belonged to the customers?” asked Wong.

“If it really is deposit-taking or money-llaundering [activity], don’t leave it dangling. Where is the justice? Is BNM’s role just to seize and raid and leave people suffering?”

She said that if this could happen to victims of Gold Label, it may also happen to the more current victims in the cases of Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Pageantry Gold Bhd, Worldwide Far East Bhd, and Ceasar Gold Sdn Bhd, which were raided in October.

“Our fear is that all the other gold companies raided by BNM will eventually go down the path of Gold Label,” she said.