KUALA LUMPUR: A financial consulting company suspected of orchestrating a personal loan fraud syndicate manipulated the turnaround time during the loan application approval process by banks, says Tan Sri Azam Baki.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner said that the approval of personal loans from banks usually takes three to five days.
"During that period, the syndicate will issue a fake cancellation letter (supposedly) from the bank that has approved the loan application (first) to the bank that is in the process of approving the loan application (second) to ensure all (applications for) loans from various banks get approved simultaneously," he said.
According to Azam, no wage slip forgery (from applicants) was made as all the borrower's debt commitments had been settled first by the syndicate to ensure the borrower could take maximum loans from several banks simultaneously.
"So far, we have seized about 4,000 documents while 98 bank accounts have been frozen with a total value of RM17,403,644 million," he said.
Azam said the company used several icons among artists and celebrities who were appointed as official ambassadors to promote the company.
"They also advertised the company's offer through social media using platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, besides using survey methods and conducting tours in schools, hospitals and clinics to lure individuals among school teachers and other civil servants.
"The company was also active in promoting their offers through organisations such as foundations to carry out CSR (corporate social responsibility) and welfare programmes for government agencies and civil servants," he said.
MACC recently thwarted corruption activities and money laundering involving a financial consulting company and bank officers at several financial institutions.
This was the result of the arrest of 12 individuals in a raid by the Anti-Money Laundering Division (AML) of the MACC in cooperation with Bank Negara at 24 locations through Ops Sky, covering residences and offices around the Klang Valley on Jan 20.
So far, 27 individuals have been arrested, including 18 bank officers, eight officers from the involved financial consulting company, and one member of the public, and all of them have been released from remand on MACC bail. - Bernama
