Depositors fail to get court order against company selling gold

Three depositors who had invested RM1.484 million in a company selling gold deposits today failed to get an injunction to stop Westrank Equity Sdn Bhd and its three directors, including Joseph Kow Hock Beng, from getting the money.

The three – Sim Ai Ping, Tsang Shing Fun and Chang Kee Fung – had filed a suit against Westrank, its three directors including Kow, Ahmad Noarman Othman and P Kavita Rajasuria Rajoo, along with trustee company My Premier Trustee (M) Bhd, and Loh Yoke Wah and Che Suri Jusoh who are agents of Westrank.

The six of them were named defendants in the suit.

Kow was previously charged with money laundering and abetting in illegal deposit but was acquitted by the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur last month.

Shah Alam High Court judicial commissioner Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that since the court today decided to extend the ex-parte injunction to a permanent injunction to prevent My Premier Trustee, which held the RM1.5 million of their deposits, hence there is no need to extend the injunction to Westrank, Kow, Ahmad Noarman and Kavita.

Wan Ahmad also allowed a varied injunction consent order on Loh and Che Suri to prevent them from withdrawing the said fund but allowed them to withdraw from their account for monthly expenses.

The judicial commissioner also ordered the plaintiffs to pay RM40,000 in costs.

Sim, Tsang and Chang obtained an ex-parte injunction against all six defendants after filing the suit last month against them.

They alleged that Kow along with Westrank launched a new business concept through various seminars, brochures and the company Westrank website and had made oral representations to them.

The plaintiffs claimed they entered into a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Loh and Che Suri for the purpose of buying and selling gold products, while My Premier Trustee was appointed a trustee to receive and hold the purchase price.

My Premier would release the discount amounts to the three plaintiffs after completing the sale and purchase of gold products as stipulated in the SPA.

This resulted in the three of them having to pay RM1.484 million into My Premier's trust accounts between March 2014 and June 2015.

Kow, Ahmad Noarman, Kavita, Loh and Che Suri promised returns under the gold programmes and tried to approach them to get RM85,109.07 for the returns or the total of their deposits of RM1.484 million.

However, Sim, Tsang and Chang discovered that the SPA was not properly executed and stamped.

They also discovered that Westrank's office in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and its headquarters at Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, were vacated and had been rented out to new tenants in March this year, when they went looking for them to get back their RM1.484 million deposit. -Mkini