Cops start probe into RM1.2mil scam

Sunday June 6, 2010
Cops start probe into RM1.2mil scam
By RACHAEL KAM
rachael@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The federal commercial crime division in Bukit Perdana is investigating the case of a “British” man who cheated a housewife of RM1.2mil.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said the division had collected all information pertaining to the complaint from him yesterday.

The information included a police report made by the housewife in Sabah, bank slips of deposits she had made into some local bank accounts and a copy of an anti-money laundering “certificate.”

Chong, who had highlighted the case at a press conference on Thursday, said police would be getting a detailed statement from the housewife.

“The conman is probably working with some locals,” he said yesterday.

The housewife, known only as Madam Lee, lodged a complaint with Chong last week that a man claiming to be a British offshore engineer named Jeff Brian Manik, whom she had befriended over the Internet last year, had cheated her of RM1.2mil.

She said a man claiming to be Manik’s agent told her Manik wanted to invest in property in Malaysia and needed her help to handle the transfer of £2.5mil (RM11.8mil) for the transaction.

She was given an anti-money laundering certificate purportedly issued by the the National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency of United Kingdom clearing the £2.5mil to be transferred to Lee from Britain.

Chong said the certificate was a ridiculous piece of document containing spelling/typographical mistakes.

These included the word enforcement being spelt as “enforement,” agency as “ageny,” British pound as “British paund” and expiry became “exptring.”

“I advise all, especially women, to be more alert and always be suspicious of someone who we befriend on the Internet and demands money or more than that,” said Chong.