Royal Gold investors claim to have lost RM400m in gold investment scheme

PETALING JAYA: Some 80 investors of a gold investment scheme called Royal Gold have lodged a police report today as they claimed to have lost RM400 million.
An investor, who declined to be named, said he was told that Royal Gold Sdn Bhd’s director and their ‘shareholder(s)’ with two companies were running the scheme.
The investors, he said in the report, was told that Royal Gold was a licensed company to run a gold investment scheme.
He named a member of a royal family, claiming that the individual had amongst others had promised the investors:
» all gold invested will be pawned to a co-operative (Koperasi) although the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government had confirmed the entity was not registered as licensed pawn brokers
» that initial investments and deposits will be channelled to a development project in Bagan Datoh although Royal Gold and another company do not have any projects there
The investor said he had invested RM340,464 in the scheme, adding that apart from the ‘royal’ figure, four companies, a ‘Datuk’ and four individuals were named.
Another investor, Patmanathan Menon, 66, alleged he did not obtain any returns at all since he invested in June 2014.
Speaking to the press, he alleged that a promise of 15% returns, excluding (initial) capital would be made every month, saying that he had invested RM200,000.
Showing a leaflet with two figures, which he claimed was a ‘Datuk’ and a ‘royal member’, said these together with promotional figures were shown to investors.
None of the investors told how they came to know of the scheme.
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng and spokesman Ronnie Liu was present together with them.