Man who racked up more than $9m in debt to 14 loan sharks denied refugee status
Gabrielle McCulloch05:00, Jun 14 2023
A Malaysian man’s lavish lifestyle and business expenses landed him in $9.5 million of debt to the wrong people – so he applied for refugee status.
New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal denied his appeal. It found no evidence of threats against his life and said his fear of persecution was “not well-founded”.
The man was in Malaysia when he started a money lending business in 2003, taking money from investors and lending it out at a high interest rate.
But in 2008, when business became rocky, he decided to borrow money from loan sharks and other lenders to keep afloat.
This became a pattern. Between 2008 and 2014, the man continued to borrow from other lenders to fund his business and lifestyle.
He would take out new loans to pay off old ones.
The man and his family were living an “extravagant lifestyle” and he did not keep tabs on the debts he was accruing nor the money flowing in and out of his multiple personal accounts.
By early 2014, he realised he owed at least MYR27,000,000 (about NZ$9.5m) to a string of lenders and investors.
It was too much to repay.
By this time, no less than 14 of the man’s creditors were loan shark.
By the end of March 2014, a number of investors in his lending company gave the man a deadline of the following Monday to pay back all their money – a total of around MYR9,000,000 (NZ$3.15m).
The man did not have their money and could not borrow any more.
He fled to New Zealand with his family in April 2014. Upon arrival, he was greeted with Facebook posts from people back home calling him a “scumbag” and “cruel and unscrupulous”. Posts included photos of him and his business.
In 2015, the man discovered he had a “blacklisted” Malaysian immigration status, which meant when he tried to renew his Malaysian passport four years later, he was unable to.
By 2020, he made a claim for refugee and protected person status in New Zealand.
The man argued that if he returned to Malaysia he would be arrested on arrival, charged with criminal offences relating to the collapse of his money lending business, and would not get a fair trial because of the influence of his investors.
He also fears his life would be threatened by loan sharks.
New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal found the man’s statements credible, but did not find any evidence that his life was under threat.
His appeal was rejected.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300902122/ma...-refugee-status
