More news from Newpaper...
SwissCash victim conned by Merc-driving
associate
By Alvin Chiang
January 20, 2008
Good friends lose $42,000 to
alleged fund scam
THE promised returns sounded too good to be true.
Invest in this fund and get back three times the investment in just
14 months.
That's what Mr C S Chew was told by a business associate.
So the 34-year-old assistant sales manager put in almost $13,000 in
the Swiss Mutual Fund and was promised monthly payouts between 15
and 25 per cent.
But all he got back was $2,750.
Also known as SwissCash, it is an alleged scam in Malaysia and
China.
Mr Chew is not the only victim.
He got his friend, Mr H K Chen, who is in his 40s, to also invest
in the fund.
Mr Chen, who owns an assembly line business, didn't get back a cent
from his wife's $31,500 investment.
Said Mr Chew: 'I feel guilty having introduced them to it.'
The two men have known each other for eight years.
Mr Chew found out about SwissCash from a business associate, known
as Anthony, whom he has been friends with for about five years. He
also introduced Anthony to Mr Chen's wife.
Said Mr Chew: 'I believed Anthony as he said he had invested in the
fund for two years. He assured me the fund was stable and the
returns are guaranteed.
'Also, Anthony looked like he was successful. He dressed well and
drove a Mercedes Benz.
'He told me that over $1 million was placed in the fund through him
by various people.'
PROMISED RETURNS
Mr Chew began with a first deposit of $1,648 in March last year,
with promised returns of 15 per cent a month.
In April, Anthony told him the returns would go up to 25 per cent,
but only if he put in more money.
So Mr Chew invested another $11,146.
However, he suspected something was amiss when the SwissCash
website was no longer accessible in mid-August.
When asked, Anthony told Mr Chew to wait for a few days as the
server was down.
Then, the monthly payouts stopped and Anthony gave Mr Chew one
excuse after another.
Mr Chew filed a police report in October.
Last month, The New Paper reported that music teacher G Joseph, 59,
lost about $1,500 after putting US$2,000 ($2,700) into
SwissCash.
In 2006, two Malaysian datuks and six others were placed in remand
by Malaysian authorities. They helped in investigations into
SwissCash, reported The Business Times.
In China, police found that 170,000 people had placed 1.36 billion
yuan ($268 million) with SwissCash, Xinhua news agency
reported.
More than 3,300 organisers and core members were
arrested in 14 provinces and cities last
year.
Two men were charged.
