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KUCHING (September 30): A total of 232 Sarawak plaintiffs were successful today in their bid to claim special damages of RM37,351,520 from Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
Kuching High Court Judge Datuk Lee Heng Cheong said in his ruling that the plaintiffs will be compensated for their losses in investing in gold with the company.
It also said that the 232 plaintiffs have the right to claim Genneva Malaysia’s cash damages through Bank Negara.
In the statement of the lawsuit, it was said that the defendant had announced and stated to the public at all important times that he was a body authorized to transact with gold.
The plaintiffs then entered into four types of settlement with the defendant for the gold trade through his agents at his office in Bangunan Binamas.
However, the plaintiffs did not receive the gold products or the value of the gold products they had purchased.
They then sued Genneva Malaysia for failing to conduct business properly or legally, to avoid seizure of any gold by the competent authority.
Wong King Wei, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, described the ruling as significant in the sense that the 232 plaintiffs will be compensated with cash and not with the return of gold.
“The gold that has been lost will be offset by the value of the gold in terms of money,” he told reporters.
Wong said that he and the legal team consisting of advisers Betty Ling, Jennet Wong, Joshua Lee, Alex Ngu and Terrance Chong represented 269 plaintiffs in their claim against Genneva Malaysia for the losses they suffered due to the purchase of gold or the subscription. to the company’s scheme.
However, 37 plaintiffs either failed or refused to file claims against the company, and as such, today’s sentence went to the remaining 232 plaintiffs, it added.
On August 4 this year, Bernama reported that the Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced eight people linked to Genneva Malaysia to between three and nine years in prison for money laundering and illegal receipt of deposits related to investments in gold bullion in 2011.
Judicial Commissioner Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh also fined all defendants between RM1 million and RM3 million in jail for the default of two to four years.
The defendants were three directors of Genneva Malaysia, namely Datuk Tan Liang Keat, Datuk Philip Lim Jit Meng and Ahmad Khairuddin Ilias, their CEO Lim Kah Heng and two advisers Datuk Ng Poh Weng and Datuk Marcus Yee Yuen Seng, as well like two other individuals Datuk Chiew Soo Ling and Yao Kee Boon.
Genneva Malaysia and two other companies, Success Attitude Sdn Bhd and Ng Advantage Sdn Bhd, were also found guilty of the crimes and fined between RM1 and RM5 million.
Ahmad Shahrir imposed the punishments after allowing the prosecution’s appeal against the decision of the Court of Sessions in 2017 to acquit and release all defendants.
However, it accepted their requests for stay of execution pending appeal to the Court of Appeal and granted bonds of between RM 100,000 and RM 1 million.
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