Selective repayment

A land banking compay paid off an investor who gave them a lot of trouble earlier but had agreed to cool off for a month. This amount invested was less than $30,000. Other investors in the same product had been waiting for more than one year, without being repaid. Presumably, they were not so troublesome or had invested a large sum of money.

This company is practicing "divide and conquer". By paying off some investors, who would then tell the other investors, it might motivate the other mitigant investors to be more compliant, in the hope that they would be repaid.

This seemed to me like highway robbery.

A month ago, another investor wrote to me to tell me that she had invested in land banking plots and was quite convinced about the merits of land banking. I knew this investor to be quite sound in financial matters and was quite surprised at her views. I wonder if she was also being paid off in this manner, in return for being an ambassador?

What has become of Singapore, for a company to take large sums of money from the public, to act in this manner, to be protected by a reputable lawyer firm and to practice selective repayment of their obligations?

Tan Kin Lian