Wednesday October 3, 2012

Investors and traders throng Genneva’s offices following raid by govt agencies

KUALA LUMPUR: Anxious Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd investors and trading agents thronged the company's headquarters here in Jalan Kuchai Maju 6 and its Penang hub to find out if their savings were safe in the wake of the raid by several government agencies.

Fears were rife because many of them had invested large sums of money in the company's gold trading scheme.

Shereen Lim, 54, who quit her job as a timber exporter to concentrate on gold trading as a consultant, said she felt victimised after the raid because her main source of income was affected.

“Many of my customers have been using the money from gold trading to support their children's further education, their aged parents or to pay medical bills,” she said.

“This raid is affecting our rice bowl and causing us a lot of hardship.”

The Genneva office remained shut yesterday despite a gathering of more than hundred-strong crowd, most of them consultants.

“Some of my clients are retirees in their 70s and 80s. They have put in their life savings here,” said Pat Lu, a senior consultant who also went into gold trading to fund her son's college education.

“My aunts and uncles are also customers. They buy gold from me, too,” she said, adding that they had been getting monthly returns called hibah (a discretionary “gift” in Islamic banking).

“I'm wondering when my commission is going to be paid, because my son's fees will be due. If not for Bank Negara's raid, I wouldn't be worrying,” she said.

Another consultant, Moy Fook Thong, 75, said investors trading with the company receive physical gold in the form of wafers a few days after making payment.

However, due to the investigations, many customers and consultants had not been able to receive their gold or commissions, Moy said.

In GEORGE TOWN, Genneva regional director Datuk Joseph Kow held a closed-door meeting with some 100 consultants and investors at the office yesterday, where many of them expressed confidence in the firm's legality.

It is believed that among other things, Kow spoke about the raid on Monday and that more information would be released when company chairman, Tengku Muhaini Sultan Ahmad Shah, returned from London.

Like many of the consultants interviewed, Mazri Mahmood, 41, said the swoop had created many problems for his customers.

“Most of us are worried because the company's bank account has been frozen following the raid. Our transactions have also been interrupted,” he said.

News

Wednesday October 3, 2012

Investors and traders throng Genneva’s offices following raid by govt agencies