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Xiahou Yuan
Guest
Saturday November 20, 2010
Friends lose RM16,000 to Sukarno’s ‘spokesman’
SIX office mates in Seremban, lured by the prospect of a huge bounty left behind by Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, pooled more than RM16,000 and deposited the money into the account of an unknown person, Harian Metro reported.
One of the victims, calling himself Shamsul, said he met a so-called representative of Sukarno’s estate at a restaurant in Bandar Baru Nilai, Negri Sembilan, on Oct 13 and was told that the late president had left behind a fortune totalling US$3.2bil (RM10bil). Shamsul said the man, in his 40s, claimed a son of the late president was in Malaysia and going through the process of taking back the assets, which were in Bank Negara’s custody.
“We were told that the assets needed to be liquidated before the claims could proceed. “The estate was looking for several private ‘investors’ – referred to as the jemaah – who could help raise money as collateral for the release of the late president’s assets,” he said, adding that several parties were supposed to be involved in seeing through the process — such as the police, Customs Department, Immigration Department and the Prime Minister’s Department.
“Each investor was promised dividends of as much as five times the invested amount as well as bonuses, which could bring the investors’ returns to millions of ringgit,” Shamsul said. To make it convincing, the so-called Sukarno family spokesman showed the victims a letter purportedly from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that Malaysia had an agreement on the matter with the White House (official residence of the United States president) and the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Shamsul and his friends invested between RM2,000 and RM3,000 each to raise a total of RM16,000 for their contribution to the so-called collateral. They reported the matter to the police when they realised the promised dividends and bonuses were not forthcoming. The police have since picked up a man in his 30s at Taman Melawati, Ulu Langat, who is believed to be part of a syndicate.
