KUALA LUMPUR: Former investment banker Charles Chua Yi Fuan was sentenced to three years in jail and fined RM1 million by the Sessions Court here t for deceiving an investor to invest in a non-existent investment scheme which caused the investor to lose RM175,000 five years ago.
Judge Kamarudin Kamsun handed down the sentence on Chua, 45, formerly vice president of debt markets at Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd after he pleaded guilty to one out of the 17 charges.
Earlier on Wednesday (March 29), deputy public prosecutor Hashley Tajudin told the judge that the prosecution and Chua’s lawyers were amicable in asking the court to take into account the other 16 outstanding charges when passing the sentence.
The judge said he took into consideration the 16 outstanding charges pursuant to Section 171A of the Criminal Procedure Code in passing the sentence. This means that Chua has no more outstanding charges.
The section stated that in any criminal proceedings instituted by or on behalf of the public prosecutor where the accused is found guilty of an offence, the court, in determining and passing a sentence, may, with the consent of the prosecutor and the accused, take into consideration any other outstanding offence or offences which the accused admits to having committed.
In all 17 charges, Chua told his victims that they were investing in investment schemes involving the subscription of securities, but the purported schemes did not exist and made the investors lose RM1.73 million between 2017 and 2019.
Chua was charged with using his position as the vice-president of debt markets at the bank to deceive Lim Boon Bing to invest RM175,000 in a sham "QSR” IPO and promised him returns on his investment of 8.5 per cent for the first month and 10 per cent for the subsequent months.
He was charged to prompt Lim Boon Bing to deposit the money into his account between April 3 and May 24, 2018, at the Malayan Banking Berhad Graha Peladang, Jalan Hang Tuah, Melaka.
Chua at all material times knew that the QSR IPO was a sham and did not exist.
The charge, framed under Subsection 179(b) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA), provides jail terms not exceeding 10 years and a fine of not less than RM1 million for each charge. - Bernama
