For 62-year-old visually impaired retiree Loh Kong Ken, all he longed for is to have enough savings to put food on the table and ensure he is financially independent in his golden years.

Having just retired as a private university’s student affairs’ coordinator in late 2020, Loh had pondered on how he would keep up with the rising cost of living by solely relying on his Employees Provident Fund (EPF) savings.

When he learnt from friends in his community that there was an investment fund paying out between 6% and 8% in returns per month, he was drawn to it.

“A few of them invested in this fund known as Cooper Markets, purportedly a forex trading company that had been operating since 2018, and they bragged about the high returns it paid out.

“I did some research and waited six months before I withdrew RM100,000 and joined the scheme,” he told The Star.

Loh then encouraged his 58-year-old wife to follow suit after seeing lucrative returns and she matched her husband’s sum using her EPF savings.

He had planned to hold their funds for about a year to double them before withdrawing all.

However, on that fateful day in June 2021, just about six months after they had invested, the balance of their funds was suddenly in the negative.

“They had pulled the ‘kill switch’,” he said sadly.

What followed were frantic calls and enquiries to the fund operators that went unanswered.

Loh was among 30 people, mostly aged above 55 from the visually impaired community, who had collectively lost about RM1.5mil after investing between RM5,000 and RM100,000 in the scam fund.

The fund they were involved with, CP Markets (Cooper Markets) Malaysia, was in January 2021 listed in the Securities Commission’s Investor Alert List, an advisory to the public against investing with a company that is not licensed or approved by the commission.

Mohd Moktar Soon, 68, a retired telephonist, said he was initially skeptical of the scheme but ended up parting with RM85,000.

“I sold my house and spent a large chunk of the money to invest in the fund. By the time I realised it was a scam, it was too late. We learnt that the live trading platform application we were told to monitor was rigged.

“I am still reeling from the disappointment and regret. I hope someone will help us at least recover part of our losses,” he said.

Another victim, who wished to be known only as Ng, a 58-year-old masseur, lost RM25,000 and was the first to invest in the fund before introducing it to the others.

“It all started when a regular client came to me for a massage and started promoting the scheme. I also introduced my relatives and friends to it. We were advised to not withdraw any sum and to allow the interest to compound.

“In the end, it collapsed and we lost everything,” he said.

All three men believed the scheme was genuine after some name-dropping was done by its promoters who claimed the fund was headed by VVIPs and bigwigs in the investment industry.

Several of the blind victims had lodged police reports but decided not to follow up on the case after it became inconvenient for them to go to and fro to have their statements recorded.

“It’s not easy and can be arduous for a blind man to travel to unfamiliar places. Hence, we told the police we were unable to do so and did not take it further,” said Ng.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by CHARLES RAMENDRAN

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