News

Saturday July 28, 2012

Five held over fake gold scam

By STEVEN DANIEL
stevend@thestar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested five people in connection with the cheating case involving a local bank which lost RM75mil after it bought fake gold.

City Commercial Crime Investigation De­­-part­ment chief Asst Comm Izany Abdul Ghany said his department had received six police reports in Kuala Lumpur.

“A task force arrested five suspects, aged between 24 and 33, including a woman who sold the fake gold to the bank,” he said.

He revealed that the bank was approached by the suspects to pawn the gold but only later did the bank discover that they were copper bars layered with gold.

It is learnt that the total losses from the scam in Penang was RM5mil while the remaining RM33mil were reported in other states, bringing the bank’s total losses to RM38mil.

ACP Izany said investigations were still ongoing. Bank Negara was also said to be conducting its own investigations.

The scam was carried out by the suspects through an Islamic pawn-broking service provided by the bank at several of its branches.

It was reported that the gold was discovered to be fake following an asset evaluation by the bank. A few bank staff were also said to have been detained to facilitate investigations.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story
  • Bookmark and Share