ULOG: 09 "Hundreds of Batam Residents Become Victims of Fake Investment"

Img source : salesbuzz.com

Investment fraud cases have occurred again in Batam City, Riau Islands.

There are at least 500 residents who are victims of PT Maju Aset Indonesia (MAI) with losses of up to USD 1.25 million.

Most of the victims were residents of Batam and Riau Islands. The rest came from Pekanbaru, Padang, Jakarta, Lampung, Medan and Gorontalo.

One of the victims, Lizawati, told PT MAI's fraud chronology. This case began in 2016. At that time PT MAI introduced itself as a company engaged in aircraft wing assembly.

Shortly after inaugurating the office in Batam, exactly on the 3rd floor of Adhya Building, Sukajadi Complex, Batam, PT MAI began to attract prospective 'investors'.

In addition to interest and big profits, at that time PT MAI also promised that the company claimed to be based in Malaysia could enter the stock exchange (go public).

"He said this company belongs to a Malaysian businessman named Datok Dave. The company recruited Batam people named Sudri Alianto as its director, "Lizawati said on Wednesday (8/22).

To its victims, PT MAI claimed to be running a number of projects. Like Aeromex, Yixing Energy, JSM Market, to import Malaysian-made cars, Haval.

To convince potential investors, PT MAI made an agreement with investors in front of notary Ariyanto Lie, and offered several benefits when joining.

"Because there is this notary party, we believe in investing in rollicking," he explained.

According to him, there are various ways of investing made by victims. Starting from handing over cash, guaranteeing land certificates, to selling ships. Investment value per person varies.

But after more than a year of running, it turned out that the investors did not get the promised benefits. Even PT MAI said that it would change its business activities.

If initially working on a ship wing manufacturing project, the company changed its business plan to process sea water into gas, then changed again to AERO 123.

"In the end, until now all programs have nothing real. In fact, investors are asked to add capital back, "said Lizawati who was accompanied by other victims from Jakarta, Tanjungpinang, Balai Karimun, Padang, Pekanbaru, and Bandung.

Seeing investor confidence began to decline, PT MAI summoned its investors to Malaysia. At that time the boss of PT MAI, Datok Dave promised to settle the investor's payment of USD 1,25 million in June 2018.

But the payment will be paid in installments. For the first stage, it will be repaid before a notary public by making an agreement, if within six months the company does not go public, all investors' assets will be returned in whatever form.

"But until now it remains nil," he said.

Liza said, this case had been reported to the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) Kepri and the Kepri Regional Police Investigation Task Force. "We have also made a complaint to the Riau Islands Regional Police regarding this stupid investment," said Liza.