A huge alleged global fraud syndicate has been smashed and its suspected British mastermind arrested.
Law enforcers say the gang operated out of Malaysia, placing adverts on Facebook targeting savers, mainly in Britain and Australia.
A total 70 people were arrested in raids on 24 call centres, offices and homes in the capital Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere. During the raid one suspect, a New Zealand national, jumped from the fourteenth floor and landed on the eleventh, breaking his hip.
In an astonishing twist, the gang was said to have been able to operate for years by bribing local police officers to turn a blind eye.
The operation code-named Tropicana was led by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the elite Special Tactical Force from their immigration department.
Also involved was private cyber security firm IFW Global which is representing 20 Australian victims who alone lost the equivalent of £35 million.
Not all victims had as much to lose as these high net worth individuals, many being small savers.
“This criminal group left a path of destruction and financial ruin,” said Ken Gamble, executive chairman of IFW Global.
“These alleged fraudsters claimed to be working for major financial advisory firms in Southeast Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea, but they were sitting in secret offices in Malaysia selling non-existent shares using high pressure sales techniques and cleverly prepared sales scripts to scam investors.”
Among those named in court papers is alleged ringleader Andrew Mark Peters, 54, from Birmingham, and his son Harrison Peters, and British nationals Lloyd George Bedwell and Roger Hoi-wing Wu.
Some Malaysian newspaper reports say the gang has been operating since 2019, but Mr Gamble believes it has been in action for as long as 15 years, enticing victims with offers to invest in prominent companies that were supposedly about to launch on the stock market.
Anyone who responded was promised that their money would be kept safe in escrow accounts and further reassured by professional-looking websites, but these only lasted a few months before
disappearing, with new ones taking their place.
According to IFW Global, one of the scam sites is JK Marshall Mercantile which brazenly claims: “As your financial guardian, we are bound both ethically and legally to always act in your best interests.”
The gang’s downfall was set in motion when immigration officials began covertly monitoring foreigners whose repeated journeys to and from the country aroused suspicion.
The Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said that the raids took place without the help of local police because their officers could not be trusted.
“We believe that there are officials from enforcement agencies that have been bribed,” Tan Sri Azam Baki told a press conference. "We have seen certain names who are suspected to be involved in their activities."
He added their work was aided by the UK’s National Crime Agency, which “red-flagged” some of the British nationals under investigation.
Big profits can be made when private companies launch on the stock market, but conmen prey on investors wanting a slice of these Initial Public Offerings or IPOs.
US financial services giant Stripe is one of many firms plagued by scammers claiming it is about to launch an IPO.
“There is a long history of bad actors attempting to scam retail investors by offering fake and fraudulent opportunities to invest in prominent private technology companies,” it warns.
"Stripe does not offer opportunities for retail investors to invest in the company, nor does it offer equity investments through third-party brokers or other agents. Any third-party offer to purchase shares in Stripe stock is very likely a scam.”
Only this week a supposed IPO of Revolut was being advertised on Facebook, the ad linking to the website www.freefinancialadvise.info, which asks for your contact details. I would not give them: Revolut states that it has no plans for a stock market flotation.
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