JOHOR BARU: A businessman from Hong Kong, who was hoping to organise a Korean mega concert featuring several international artistes, was duped in a scam that resulted in more than RM13mil in losses.
The businessman in his 50s, had even forked out more than RM350,000 to book a prime spot at the Hong Kong Harbourfront for the show, which was supposed to have taken place several weeks ago.
A police official said the incident happened earlier this year when the businessman befriended a man claiming to be an organiser of international concerts and events.
“The businessman was impressed by the proposal to have South Korean stars such as G-Dragon, Taeyang, Daesung, Allday Project and Nowz perform at the concert in Hong Kong,” the official said, adding that the duo then formalised their plans in an agreement.
The official said that subsequently, as part of the deal, the businessman transferred more than US$3.2mil (RM13mil) to an account and also booked the venue.
“However, several weeks after making the payment, the businessman realised something was wrong as preparations for the concert were moving too slowly and he decided to make some enquiries.
“The victim was shocked when he found out from the agents managing the artistes that they did not know anything about the concert and that one of the artistes had openly announced he would not be joining the concert line-up,” the official said, adding that the businessman realised that he had been duped and lodged a police report.
When contacted, a senior police official said that investigation into the case under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating was ongoing.
He urged those with information to contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999.
Meanwhile in a unrelated case, the Johor Immigration Depart-ment has busted a foreign worker supply syndicate allegedly masterminded by two Bangladeshi men, seizing hundreds of payslips and over RM776,000 in cash.
Johor Immigration director Datuk Mohd Rusdi Mohd Darus said the operation was carried out at three locations on Tuesday following two months of intelligence gathering.
“The two Bangladeshi suspects were believed to be the syndicate’s main operators, who allegedly misused temporary employment visit passes to supply foreign workers to factories around Johor Baru.
“We also detained another Bangladeshi man and a Myanmar national believed to be acting as supervisors in the syndicate.”
During the raids, department officials found 119 foreign workers of various nationalities crammed into a house in stuffy and congested conditions while waiting for the syndicate members to distribute their wages.
Mohd Rusdi added that they also found 450 workers’ salary slips attached to envelopes containing a total of RM776,140, two laptops, a Nepalese passport, two money-counting machines, a bank cheque book and a sport utility vehicle.
He said the male and female suspects, aged between 20 and 49 years old, came from India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
