JJPTR's founder Johnson Lee, whose Penang-based forex trading company claimed its accounts were hacked resulting in RM500 million losses, last Sunday reportedly urged “investors” to not lodge police reports as there was still money left in its accounts.
Penang Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief Asst Comm Abdul Ghani said they have yet to receive police reports on JJPTR, but said it was normal for “investors” to wait up to a year before lodging police reports in the hope of getting back their money.
“Penangites are always interested in taking part in such investment schemes to make fast money. There are still two or three such scams active locally,” he was quoted saying by local daily The Star.
According to The Star, JJPTR's contributers are typically required to put in between US$25 and US$1,000 (RM110 and RM4,400) for promised monthly dividends of 20 per cent on the amount contributed.
JJPTR, a foreign exchange trading firm said to have been active for a year, and its affiliated JJ Poor to Rich and JJ Global Network were listed on February 24 on Bank Negara Malaysia's website as unauthorised and unapproved companies.
The central bank had on its website advised the public to not deal with or be involved in such illegal financial service providers, warning that they would not be covered by consumer protection laws and that they may even be charged for aiding the illegal operators.
According to local daily Sin Chew Daily, Internet users have cast doubt on the alleged hacking of JJPTR's purported MT4 accounts, noting that the MT4 forex trading platform is commonly used by other illegal forex trading firms and have caused the latter's “investors” massive losses.
The paper said online users have also pointed out that MT4 developer MetaQuotes Software Corp allegedly does not contain records and registration information on JJPTR.
Lee was reportedly said to have used social media app Whatsapp to inform JJPTR's contributing members that the hacked account only had US$10,000 left, with other assets meaning that the company currently has US$10 million.
He reportedly said the company was due to pay out dividends of US$8 million to its investors in the J2 category (which has promised returns of 16 per cent) but he will be using the funds to conduct forex trading first.
Yesterday afternoon, Lee posted a bilingual Facebook post, saying in Mandarin that the company will reveal its new plan soon and promised to return money in JJPTR 2 and JJPTR 3 to investors in May.
Sin Chew Daily said some online users had posted encouragement for Lee, while other users had accused him of lying and highlighted that the English version of Lee's post appears to have been translated using Google Translate.
In a separate report by Sin Chew Daily, police data showed that 47 per cent or RM276 million out of the RM579 million losses that Malaysians suffered from over the past two years resulted from illegal investment scams.
It said police believed the actual number of people defrauded may be larger, as many of them opt not to lodge police reports.