SINGAPORE: The police will be making a court application to distribute more than S$1.5 million in seized assets linked to the multimillion-dollar investment scam by Genneva.
In a written reply to Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) on Jan 13, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said the police will notify claimants about the filing of claims in due course.
He added that the distribution process is complex and may take some time, as there are numerous potential claimants.
Lim had asked about the case and when victims can file claims to the recovered proceeds.
Genneva, a Singapore-registered investment firm, sold gold bars under a buyback scheme between 2008 and 2012.
Customers were promised returns of up to 36 per cent on their investments, and were told to deposit the gold bars with the company for “inspection purposes”.
They were promised an equivalent quantity of gold after three working days.
It was previously reported that the firm was estimated to have more than 10,000 customers.
Genneva is believed to have collected around 3,500kg of gold from its customers.
It experienced financial difficulties in 2012, and started defaulting on the return of the gold bars.
But it continued with the “inspection” scheme, collecting more gold bars from customers, which were resold to new clients or pawned for cash.
Eventually, Genneva racked up more than $40 million in losses for customers who participated in the “inspection” exercise.
Shanmugam said the police concluded their investigation into the case several years ago, and six people were charged in 2019.
Five of them – including the firm’s former general manager, who was jailed in 2020 – have since been convicted of various offences, including fraudulent trading, cheating and money laundering.
Court proceedings are still ongoing for the remaining person. - The Straits Times/ANN
