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The 49 fools should form a group like Keanu Reeves and his 49 Ronin and get their money back.
49 people invested $4 million of their money into a company but they haven't been able to get their money back and the company's bosses have also disappeared.
The company in question is San Tee Credit which was registered in 2006 and the company's manager is Mr Murali Krishnan Naidu. Mr Murali's wife, Madam Santhi M. K, is listed as the owner.
For some of the people who have lost their money, some of them were childhood friends of Mr Murali.
But they can no longer contact the couple.
So, two police reports against Madam Santhi have been made, and three lawsuits have also been filed.
One of the police reports are made by 32 investors who said that they had invested $3.13 million but have not "not received the promised full investment and principal payouts" from San Tee Credit.
But of the people who now cannot take their money back, it was their life savings that they had used to invest.
Nine of these people poured their sorrows out to The New Paper last week.
"I went to school with the both of them," 44-year old Sam, who is a part-time taxi driver, said.
"They were then dating each other. I am hurt that they have disappeared."
Sam poured in $190,000 of all the money that he had since 2010. He was told that he would get back 2.5 to 3.5 percent in returns every month.
But the money is now all gone and Sam is living "hand to mouth" every day.
It wasn't always like this. Initially, the returns were given back to the investors.
Mr Raja had invested $130,000 in the company. He had also gave a personal loan to $40,000 to Mr Murali, he said.
He said that it was in 2012 that the money earned stopping coming in.
San Tee Credit's law firm, M. Nedumaran & Co, then sent a letter to the investors in 2013 to say that the company was "revamping the nature of business" and could thus not give the money back to the investors.
But in March last year, Mr M. Nedumaran then wrote again to some of the investors and said that San Tee Credit's money could still not be taken out of the Philippines.
It was said that San Tee Credit had invested 139 million Philippine pesos (S$4.1 million) in two moneylending businesses in the Philippines. The two moneylenders were giving loans to Filipino soldiers.
San Tee Credit later also engaged a lawyer in the Philippines to send letters of demand to the two companies and said that it would take legal action if they do not return the principal investment and returns earned.
The investors in Singapore also received the letter.
But they were shocked.
"It was the first time I learnt that my money was being invested overseas," Mr Raja said.
"All along, I thought I was investing in San Tee Credit's moneylending business here.
"Nowhere in our contract did it mention investments in the Philippines."
Now, some of the investors are even blaming Mr Raja. He had previously worked for Mr Murali in another company for five years.
"Many investors and family members called me to say 'I should have known better'. But the truth is, I'm equally disappointed because I trusted him," he said.
But even Mr Raja hasn't been able to contact. April last year was the last time he managed to speak to Mr Murali. Mr Murali said he needed time.
Then, just two months later, Mr Murali could not be contacted on his phone line.
Everyone remained in confusion until October last year when several investors bumped into Mr Murali as they were looking for him.
He was driving into a condominium at King Albert Park in Bukit Timah.
So Mr Haresh Govindaraju, 47, ran to the car to try to stop it. But Mr Murali would not stop.
He kept driving and driving until the car stopped at a police post in Bukit Batok, all this while with Mr Haresh holding on to it.
At the police post, Mr Murali left quickly and left his wife there.
Both she and Mr Haresh then made a police report. A video of the incident quickly went viral.
Mr Haresh had invested nearly $142,000.
"We were childhood friends," he said.
"All I wanted was to talk to him and ask him about our money."
He tried contacting Mr Murali three more times between October and December last year but Mr Nedumaran told him that Mr Murali was no longer in Singapore.
Mr Murali also could not be contacted via email and were neither at his office at Genting Lane or his Yishun home.
In total, the three lawsuits are asking for a total of $690,000 to be returned.
A Mr K. Premmananth is asking for $503,000.
The State Courts riled in favour of the plaintiffs because no defence was filed.
Still, they could not get their money back.
The couple have disappeared.
http://therealsingapore.com/content/couple-ran-away-after-taking-4-million-49-people-investments
