PUTRA JAYA: Disgruntled investors in the Bestino gold scheme will stage a mass protest on Feb 26 in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in their ongoing struggle to get their money back.
The decision for the demonstration was taken at a recent meeting of investors and the group representing them, the Bestino Action Committee.
K Kunasekaran, a spokesman for the committee, disclosed this today after meeting an aide to the Prime Minister in Putrajaya.
“The investors want back their money before the 13th general election,” Kunasekaran told FMT.
He accused Bank Negara of pretending to be ignorant of the issue.
“The investors want Bank Negara to disburse to the investors the RM24.2 million it seized from Bestino,” he said.
Bestino started its gold investment scheme in 2006 and had collected RM411 million from 6,764 investors by 2009, when Bank Negara and the Securities Commission raided the company’s offices on suspicion that it was engaged in illegal deposit-taking operations.
The central bank confiscated RM24.2 million from Bestino for use as evidence.
Since then, the investors have been asking Bank Negara and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who is also Finance Minister, to resolve their woes speedily.
One of the demands they have frequently made to Bank Negara is to freeze Bestino director Chong Yuk Ming’s assets and release the RM24.2 million frozen following the 2009 raids.
“But, it is weird that Bank Negara has been giving lame excuses to delay the process,” said Kunasekaran.
He said the investors’ lawyers had a meeting early this month with Chong, Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and representatives of Bank Negara.
The lawyers pointed out that there were legal provisions allowing the central bank to disburse the RM24.3 million to investors and to freeze the Bestino director’s assets, he added.
“Bank Negara agreed to look into the investors’ demands, but did not give a time frame.”
Kunasekaran said he could not understand why the authorities had allowed the issue to drag on for so long.
“It’s been more than two years, and we’re nowhere beyond the starting stage.”
He expressed fear that the issue would be buried forever after the coming general election.
He said the investors would not hesitate to stage a nationwide protest during the campaign for the election unless some solution was found before then.
However, he cautioned against mistaking his committee for a political body or a group supporting any political organisation.
He also disclosed that his committee would attend a meeting next week with Deputy Finance Minister Donald Lim.
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