KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 ― Over a thousand investors are suing gold trading firm Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd to recover over RM146 million the company owes them in gold buillions and cash.
In a statement of claim filed on Monday, the investors said the firm had breached its contract with them.
They also said Genneva had “advertised and represented” itself as a “licensed firm authorised to conduct gold trading.”
The plaintiffs allege that they engaged in three separate categories of agreement with the firm that led to combined loss of RM146 million in investments.
The suit was filed by Messrs Raj, Ong and Yudistra, who are also acting as solicitors for the 1,065 plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs are also seeking damages and costs.
They name Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as second defendant and are seeking an order to force the central bank to release gold and cash it had confiscated from the firm during a raid in 2012.
The lawyers for the group wrote to the central bank for asking for the release of the property seized from Genneva but the bank replied that it cannot comply without a relevant court order.
“Bank Negara also owes a common law duty to return the gold and monies to the plaintiffs,” the statement said.
Bank Negara raided Genneva four years ago over a dubious gold trading scheme. Genneva Malaysia and its affiliates were similarly raided on October 1, 2012.
The bank froze Genneva Malaysia’s cheques, accounts and other assets worth RM99.8 million in cash, and seized 126kg in gold bullion, based on suspicions that the company had broken several banking and financial laws.
Last December, nine investors sued Genneva Malaysia and four of its directors — Tengku Muhaini Sultan Ahmad Shah, Philip Lim Jit Meng, Ahmad Khairuddin Ilias and Tan Lian Keng — in an attempt to recover RM2 million in investments.
They claimed that the company had committed fraud and misrepresented the gold scheme as complying with Syariah law.
Malaysia does not regulate the gold trading business and BNM’s raid following complaints last year and the subsequent seizure of several hundred kilogrammes of gold bullion had seen a roaring trade among Malaysians of all economic backgrounds in a bid to earn fast cash.
