KUALA LUMPUR: Federal police will initiate discussions with the Companies Commission of Malaysia and Bank Negara Malaysia on implementing stricter rules for company registration and opening bank accounts.
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Citing how investment scam syndicates take advantage of the current guidelines to register companies and open bank accounts to dupe victims of millions, Bukit Aman believes that stricter criteria would help prevent the exploitation of these loopholes.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said until Feb 2, 765 investment scam cases were recorded involving RM125,688,461.43 in losses.
“This is equivalent to 14.8 per cent of all the commercial crime cases recorded nationwide to date,” he said when contacted.
He said that based on their investigations so far, it could be concluded that a majority of these investment scam cases occurred because of the existence of numerous registered companies offering bogus investments.
“Some of them use words such as ‘equity’, ‘trader’, ‘financial’, and ‘capital’ to build confidence among their victims to invest their life savings.
“Our findings also revealed that the procedure for opening a company bank account needs to be fine-tuned so that only legitimate companies can open bank accounts. Checks and verification efforts must be done to ensure that only legitimate companies and businesses are allowed to open bank accounts,” he said.
Ramli said that according to a Companies Commission statement on March 31, 2024, 9,208,607 businesses had been registered but only 17.8 per cent of them were active involving 1,638,025 businesses.
“As for registered companies, 1,547,394 companies had been registered but only 673,393 (43.5 per cent) of them were active.
“These numbers alone indirectly show how easy it was to register a business or company here,” he said, adding that, from one perspective, they acknowledge the issue is closely linked to economic development and encouraging businesses.
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However, he stated that from another perspective, overly lax and easy registration procedures were creating opportunities for investment fraud cases.
“Our records show that 981 companies and businesses have been listed on the Semakmule portal to date.
“These companies and businesses are all being investigated over suspicion of involvement in investment scams,” he said, adding that their records revealed one of these companies was registered by a 21-year-old student who was listed as the company director.
He emphasised that as a key preventive measure, they recommended tightening company registration procedures to prevent these companies from being arbitrarily used as intermediaries to commit fraud.
“Secondly, regarding bank accounts of registered companies and businesses being used as mule accounts, stricter registration procedures should be refined by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as a preventive measure.
“For example, companies that are related to financial management, such as those with terms like ‘equity’ or ‘capital’ in their names, could be required to submit deposit acceptance documents from BNM, provide proof of business operations, and obtain permission from the Securities Commission for investment activities before being allowed to open an account at a banking institution,” he said.
Ramli said that in 2023, 46,048 mule accounts were recorded, and that number increased to 50,295 last year.
“As of Jan 31 this year, 6,567 mule accounts have already been recorded.
“Our statistics show that CIMB Bank recorded the highest number of mule accounts, with 25,645 accounts, followed by Maybank with 25,326 accounts and Hong Leong Bank with 13,655 accounts.
“Bank Simpanan Nasional recorded 6,620 accounts, followed by Bank Islam with 5,185 accounts, Ambank with 3,412 accounts, Public Bank with 3,234 accounts, RHB Bank with 2,794 accounts, Affin Bank with 2,753 accounts, Alliance Bank with 2,728 accounts, and GXBank with 1,610 accounts,” he said, adding that 1,500 mule accounts were also recorded through other banks.
-NewStraitsTime