MALAYSIAN FIRM ALLEGEDLY DUPED OVER 70,000 RURAL INDIAN INVESTORS

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, Sept 5 (Bernama) -- A Malaysian-based multi-level marketing
company has allegedly duped thousands of investors, mostly farmers and petty
traders from India's remote state of Manipur, of their lifelong savings.

Over 70,000 investors from the north-eastern state of Manipur had fallen
victim to the multi-million ringgit pyramid scam.

The nature of business of the four-year-old Selangor-based private limited
company has been described as general trading and investment.

"Maximum investors are poor people, some politicians and bureaucrats also
invested in the schemes operated by a Malaysian company.

"People sold their properties, land and invested their savings," Brojen
Sinam, president of United Investors Trust, a body set up to address victims'
grievances, told Bernama by phone from Manipur's capital, Imphal.

In mid-2009, the company hired local agents in the impoverished Manipur to
launch its various 'get-rich-quick' schemes.

"In the first year, investors received good returns and were given gold
coins, and that gave them confidence to invest more. But in the last three
months, no payment was done and all agents went missing.

"Most of the poor people do not know what to do...we are appealing to
politicians and the Indian Government to help recover the money," said Sinam.

When contacted by Bernama, police in Imphal confirmed the scam and said
investigations were in progress.

"They have lodged an FIR (First Information Report -- prepared by the police
based on complaints) on several companies that have cheated them here.

"We were told the group's headquarters is in Malaysia but most of the agents
are now outside Manipur or escaped to Malaysia," said an investigating officer
in charge of the fraud case, who declined to be identified.

On Aug 3, the helpless victims, trapped in the complex pyramid scheme,
staged a protest in Delhi and submitted memorandi to senior Indian ministers to
probe the scam.

-- BERNAMA