SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR (The Straits Times/ANN): A Singaporean man has been ordered by a Malaysian High Court to return about RM28 million (S$8.4 million) to 122 Malaysian investors, who had sued him in 2022 to recoup their investments.
Kuala Lumpur High Court Justice Arief Emran Arifin said Chan Cheh Shin’s operation was illegal, according to local media reports on Friday (Nov 15).
Chan also did not seek approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia to collect funds for investment activities.
Justice Arief ordered Chan to return the monies he had collected from the investors. The investments totalled about RM28 million, said a web portal in Malaysia.
The judge also ordered Chan to pay interest on the sum collected from the investors at 5 per cent per annum, from the date of the case filing until the judgment sum is settled.
Chan’s lawyer, Ravi Nekoo, said his client will file an appeal.
According to the local report, Chan had set up a company called Fulda Malaysia.
He was a director of the company and had promoted several investment products via roadshows and seminars.
The investors claimed he persuaded them to invest in various investment schemes by promising multiple returns.
They said he convinced them that he would prudently manage their investments and that if the investments failed, he would indemnify them, added the local report.
From 2016, the investors paid money to Fulda and another Singapore-based company known as Palau Capital, where Chan was also a director.
However, the investors did not receive returns from their purported investment. They filed the suit two years ago to recover their capital.
This is not the first time Chan has been hauled to court in Malaysia.
In 2020, he and two brothers were charged at the Seremban Sessions Court with allegedly cheating a businessman into investing in cryptocurrency, which resulted in losses of more than RM2.4 million.
A year later, Chan and a married couple were charged at the Ipoh magistrate’s court with allegedly cheating two people of RM12,867.30 in an investment scheme. - The Straits Times/ANN