Bestino investors turn to PM for help

PUTRAJAYA: Anxious about their investments and at their wits' end, disgruntled investors in a botched gold investment scheme are turning to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for help.

Representatives of over 6,700 investors of Bestino Golden House Sdn Bhd claimed they had exhausted every possible avenue to recover their share of some RM411mil pumped into the Ipoh-based company between 2006 and 2009.

Bestino Action Committee spokesman K. Kunasekaran claimed they had been passed back and forth between the Second Finance Ministry's office and Bank Negara Malaysia for most of this year with no solution in sight amid an ongoing court case against four of the company's directors for alleged money-laundering and receiving deposits without a valid licence.

Kunasekaran claimed the investors were dissatisfied with the perceived lack of action on the part of the Government in helping recover their money.

They hoped the Prime Minister would step in to arrange a meeting for the investors' committee members to meet the Second Finance Mnister.

He said this with some 30 others in front of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) here.

Meanwhile, a separate group representing the residents' action committee of Ladang Bukit Jalil held a 45-minute meeting with officers from the PMO to discuss compensation for 41 families who are facing eviction from Government-owned land despite having lived there for three generations.

Committee treasurer K. Balakrishnan claimed they were told verbally by the Prime Minister's officers that each family would be offered RM85,000 to vacate their homes, but the residents had yet to accept the offer.

He added that they wanted the Government to first settle the status of a Hindu temple and a school currently located on the land in question, and also the inclusion of 12 other former estate workers who no longer lived on the land for compensation.