KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign loan sharks are paying local runners lucrative sums to carry out acts of intimidation and violence against borrowers who default on their repayments here.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong warned that the easy money offered by such syndicates are leading desperate locals into criminal activities and entrapping borrowers in a vicious cycle of debt and intimidation.
He said the syndicates, believed to be run by Singaporeans, were actively recruiting Malaysians through social media and offered attractive payouts that are drawing many takers.
Chong said the runners were hired to carry out threats and acts of harassment including vandalism and firebombing.
“From the information we have received, runners are paid about RM500 to splash red paint on houses and RM700 to hurl Molotov cocktails at the homes of defaulters,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
Chong added that the costs from the wages paid to the runners were then passed on to the borrowers.
“There are so-called ‘service charges’ added to the loan together with various "penalty fines"which can inflate the total repayment and at times amounting to more than ten times the original amount borrowed,” he said.
Chong said syndicates were now resorting to new tactics to pressure defaulters including targeting neighbours and extended family members.
He cited a case on March 21 involving a 42-year-old salesman known only as Lee from Rawang, who lodged a police report after being harassed over a loan taken by his maternal uncle who is said to be a compulsive gambler.
“The loan sharks demanded that he repay a S$5,000 (about RM15,000) loan his uncle took even though he had not been in contact with him for more than nine years,” he said.
Chong said runners had splashed red paint on a neighbour’s house that damaging the main gate and a parked car.
He added that flyers bearing photographs of Lee’s mother and uncle were also distributed in the area.
“They also threatened to burn their house and attack other neighbouring homes if their demands were not met.We initially thought it was a case of mistaken identity but now we know this is a deliberate tactic to pressure and shame the family by going after their neighbours instead,” he said.
In another case, a 69-year-old unemployed man from Jalan Kuchai Lama is in a quandary after loan sharks demanded that he pay RM18,000 for a RM500 loan he took in July last year.
Chong said the man had initially settled the loan with a payment of about RM2,000 in December but was later asked to pay an additional RM10,000 which was subsequently reduced to RM6,000 on the condition that he retract his police report.
“This runner, known as Ah Xiang, is the same individual involved in many other cases of intimidation and harassment. He carries an OKU (disabled person) card with him to evade action from the authorities,” he said.
In a third case, Chong said a 73-year-old businesswoman, identified only as Leong who had taken loans amounting to RM530,000 from 45 loan sharks is facing a similar predicament.
He said while the bureau had managed to mediate her case with most of the illegal moneylenders who agreed to let her off the hook, seven of them remained defiant and refused to do so.
“She had taken the loans to fund her business and had paid what was due but some of the loan sharks kept imposing additional charges.She has now gone into hiding and I hope she remains out of their sight for now until we sort this out with the police.
"We have applied for an appointment with the Commercial Crime Investigation Department director, Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa to call on the police to step up enforcement against these loan shark syndicates,” he said.
