A GROUP of 15 investors chased a businessman across Singapore yesterday in a bid to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars they had allegedly entrusted to him to invest in seaweed farms.
Mr Simon Ng, 54, had been due to meet the group at a coffee shop in Geylang Lorong 41 at noon, but when he sent another person to pass on his lawyer's details to them, they went to his Toa Payoh flat - before showing up at his lawyer's Changi office.
Mr Ng, a Singaporean, allegedly collected more than $1.37 million from around 20 people since last year.
He had promised them high returns and payouts after three months, at seminars in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, after flying them there on all-expenses-paid trips.
But when these windfalls did not materialise, many became suspicious.
Last week, the investors hired JMS Rogers, a debt-collection agency, and when Mr Ng did not show up in Geylang, they went to his Toa Payoh flat at about 2pm.
A woman answered the door and told them that Mr Ng was not home, then called the police.
It was only when officers arrived that he came to the door and complained to them that he was being harassed by debt collectors. He had lodged a similar report last month.
When he tried to leave for his lawyer's office in Changi at about 5pm, investors confronted him in the car park near his flat, demanding to know what happened to their money and the returns he had promised.
He told them that the multi-level marketing scheme had fallen through, adding in Mandarin: "I'm a victim too. I lost $100,000 investing in the scheme."
Mr Ng - who has seven police reports made against him - repeated this line when investors, debt collectors and reporters approached him outside his lawyer's office two hours later. As of 8pm, the group was still there, with some investors saying they had given him their life savings.
"We want an explanation," said former security officer C. G. Lim, 40, claiming that he gave Mr Ng more than $55,000.
He even quit his job last year after Mr Ng convinced him that he could make more money through the scheme. "I was trying to provide a better life for my wife and two children," said Mr Lim. "I even got my mother to invest.
"I started getting suspicious when my investment matured but I didn't receive any money."
Housewife Bebe Sim, 55, said she has invested more than $600,000 since January last year, after being promised returns up to three times of what she put in. She asked Mr Ng: "Where is my hard-earned money?"
Madam Normah Ahmed, 58, had invested her "life savings" of $30,000 in the hope that she could fund her medical expenses.
The administrative officer, who had undergone a liver transplant, spends between $1,000 and $5,000 a month on medication.
"I did not want to bother my children with the financial burden, so I invested my hard-earned money, hoping I could be self-sufficient," she said.
According to a report by the Phnom Penh Post, Mr Ng Chin Chin, the boss of Malaysia-based firm Solarwarm, which owns the seaweed farms, was arrested in Cambodia on April 27.
- See more at: http://business.asiaone.com/news/investors-chase-down-businessman#sthash.p8JWXrfF.xKLkaMau.dpuf
Mr Simon Ng, 54, had been due to meet the group at a coffee shop in Geylang Lorong 41 at noon, but when he sent another person to pass on his lawyer's details to them, they went to his Toa Payoh flat - before showing up at his lawyer's Changi office.
Mr Ng, a Singaporean, allegedly collected more than $1.37 million from around 20 people since last year.
He had promised them high returns and payouts after three months, at seminars in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, after flying them there on all-expenses-paid trips.
But when these windfalls did not materialise, many became suspicious.
Last week, the investors hired JMS Rogers, a debt-collection agency, and when Mr Ng did not show up in Geylang, they went to his Toa Payoh flat at about 2pm.
A woman answered the door and told them that Mr Ng was not home, then called the police.
It was only when officers arrived that he came to the door and complained to them that he was being harassed by debt collectors. He had lodged a similar report last month.
When he tried to leave for his lawyer's office in Changi at about 5pm, investors confronted him in the car park near his flat, demanding to know what happened to their money and the returns he had promised.
He told them that the multi-level marketing scheme had fallen through, adding in Mandarin: "I'm a victim too. I lost $100,000 investing in the scheme."
Mr Ng - who has seven police reports made against him - repeated this line when investors, debt collectors and reporters approached him outside his lawyer's office two hours later. As of 8pm, the group was still there, with some investors saying they had given him their life savings.
"We want an explanation," said former security officer C. G. Lim, 40, claiming that he gave Mr Ng more than $55,000.
He even quit his job last year after Mr Ng convinced him that he could make more money through the scheme. "I was trying to provide a better life for my wife and two children," said Mr Lim. "I even got my mother to invest.
"I started getting suspicious when my investment matured but I didn't receive any money."
Housewife Bebe Sim, 55, said she has invested more than $600,000 since January last year, after being promised returns up to three times of what she put in. She asked Mr Ng: "Where is my hard-earned money?"
Madam Normah Ahmed, 58, had invested her "life savings" of $30,000 in the hope that she could fund her medical expenses.
The administrative officer, who had undergone a liver transplant, spends between $1,000 and $5,000 a month on medication.
"I did not want to bother my children with the financial burden, so I invested my hard-earned money, hoping I could be self-sufficient," she said.
According to a report by the Phnom Penh Post, Mr Ng Chin Chin, the boss of Malaysia-based firm Solarwarm, which owns the seaweed farms, was arrested in Cambodia on April 27.
- See more at: http://business.asiaone.com/news/investors-chase-down-businessman#sthash.p8JWXrfF.xKLkaMau.dpuf
