Land banking - more investors caught

An investor called me. She invested a large sum of money in a land banking project with the promise of 12.5% interest on maturity at the end of 6 months. On maturity, the company did not honor the promise to pay back the investment. They asked her to extend the investment by another 6 months.

She visited a section in Hardware zone and was horrified to learn that many other investors was caught in a similar situation. She refused to extend the investment but the company has not paid back her money, in spite of her repeated requests.

The investor said that she was deceived because the land banking company had a Singapore Quality class awarded by Spring Singapore. She thought that this classification indicate that the company can be trusted to honor its promise.

The land banking company is conducting more road shows and investment talks, and more investors would be caught in this type of investment.

Many investors had already complained to the Commercial Affairs Departments of similar investments during the past year. Apparently, the CAD had not acted on these complaints. During this time, more people are being caught in similar dubious investments. It seems that a few million dollars of investments are being collected each month.

I am really at a loss on how to help these investors who were deceived by these investments. I hope that the newspapers will write a story about it. It should be a crime for the company to take deposits with the promise to return the money with interest, when they do not have a banking licence. How can the Authority stand by and allow such operations to continue?

Tan Kin Lian